Pokemon: War For Sinnoh
by Zach Archer
Summary: Lucario, Sillindra, and Tsubaki battle a newly formed Team Rocket, led by the mysterious Man In The White Mask
1. Chapter 1

**BOOK 1: BEFORE WAR  
PART 1: Legacies Begin, Legacies End, and History Repeats Itself**

-  
FROM:DR. SILLINDRA, PSYCHOLOGIST  
TO: PROFESSOR OAK  
SUBJECT: NOTES ON LUCARIO/RATCHET  
_I have been living with a seventeen year old man and his Lucario for six months. I have been aggressively detailing everything that takes place concerning the two. The man is named Sean Ratchet, and was raised by Lucario. From what I have learned, the Lucario who follows him is the one who raised him. They seem to be bonded more than any Pokemon in the world. They can see out of each others eyes, feel each others pain. It is a crazy situation if there ever was one. I personally have no understanding of why this is.  
Adding to the oddness of this case, Sean Ratchet appears to be doing things more and more out of Lucario, as if he is possessing the body. It's almost like Sean Ratchet's human body is just a vessel and he is now converting to a Lucario body, like he is becoming a Pokemon.  
I have seen these two in battle, and it is a spectacle that everyone watching will never forget. Sean Ratchet did not have to tell Lucario what to do, Lucario battled as Sean Ratchet made subtle hand motions.  
As time progresses, the days get odder and odder. The more the two become one. When I met them six months ago they were more independent. Their movements were different, they spoke differently, but now, they seem to be completely in synch.  
More on these two in a week or two. Hopefully you can swing by before I send another update and check up on these two yourself. _  
-

Professor Oak put a pen in his mouth and chewed on it for a moment, rolled it around his mouth. It was certainly an odd case. It would be a long drive and ship ride to get to Sinnoh. Then again, the scientific implications of discovering more on this subject would be tremendous. Think of the money he could make if more on human/Pokemon relationships were discovered! This was the perfect case. Despite the fact Pallet Town would be missing it's most valuable asset for a few days, they could survive without him. Gary would suffice in taking over his job. He hoped.  
Oak wasn't too happy with Gary. He was a chauvinist, a narcissist, and many other large words he didn't wish to mention. The women flocked around him because he could battle decently. But Oak knew many people who could whoop him up and down. This Sean Ratchet with just one Pokemon could probably destroy Gary. Then again, if these notes were correct, and if he had read them correctly, he WAS that Lucario, that Pokemon.  
Oak packed his bags and told his assistant to get Gary to take over for the next couple days. The assistant asked why he couldn't take over and Oak rubbed the stubble on his cheek. A good question. Oak just let the assistant deal with it in the interest of wanting to leave.  
He took his car and headed toward the docks. The whole time he was playing over what could make a human become a Pokemon.

Giovanni had been the leader of Team Rocket. Now, he was nothing more than meat, standing in a stadium surrounded by the team. They stared at him, some sad, some pitying him. This was the arena in which he had attempted to train Mewtwo almost ten years before. Six months before it had been the place where he had disbanded Team Rocket, told them to go and do something decent with their lives, quit terrorizing people and stealing Pokemon. He wanted to go back to his mansion, sip at champagne with a lady. Live his life happily with Persian and a woman. Sit in a chair beside a pool, read the paper.  
Instead, he was taken prisoner, Team Rocket was brought back together, and a new man took over. The Masked Man. Who he was nobody knew. He had killed Madame Boss, Giovanni's mother, right before his eyes, shot her right in the head. And now, he was handcuffed and being led toward a platform, stairs leading to a pole with a rope dangling from it. A lever stood beside that.  
The hangman's noose hung there, ominously.  
Persian walked beside Giovanni, head bent low.  
Giovanni took the steps to the platform two at a time and walked toward The Masked Man. He spit at the mask, the spittle collecting right above the right eye of the white mask.  
That was when Persian pounced, tackling The Masked Man to the platform and scratching at his mask.  
There was a loud bang. Persian's head exploded, blood and brains spraying across Giovanni's face. His favorite pet was dead. His best friend.  
Giovanni ran at The Masked Man and kicked the pistol from his hands. It flew off the platform and Giovanni stomped on his mask. It cracked. And half a face could be made out. A familiar face.  
Four men in Team Rocket uniforms grabbed Giovanni and restrained him. He struggled but it was no use. He was taken under the hangman's noose, and the rope was brought around his neck and tightened.  
The Masked Man stood, holding the half of his mask that fell off over his face. "Any last words?" He asked as he kicked the corpse of Persian off the platform.  
"Fuck y..." The words were cut off as the lever was pulled and Giovanni fell through the trapdoor of the platform. The rope jumped a little when it was strung taut, with Team Rocket's former boss dangling, struggling at the end of it like a fish. His eyes bulged, his face turned blue.  
Team Rocket watched on. Giovanni died, his windpipe crushed, unable to breath.

Sean awoke screaming. He had felt like his stomach was being eaten. His whole body had been in pain. Now nothing hurt. Lucario stood in the corner, and Sean saw through his eyes, saw that he was sweating terribly. Sean felt the pain of Lucario suddenly. He felt a pain in Lucario's belly, just like he had just had.  
Sillindra ran into the room. "What's wrong?" She asked.  
Lucario was cringing in pain, but looked at her and gave her the thumbs up.  
"No,no,no." She grabbed him and held him up, brought him over to the bed. Sean rolled over as Lucario tried to stop from screaming. Sean felt his pain and was doing the same, holding back screams.  
"What the hell is going on?" Sillindra asked.  
Sean Ratchet lay in the bed, sweating profusely. Lucario lay beside him, pain in his eyes. They both felt it.  
Sillindra thought that something was taking place, the union of the two was getting closer and closer, meaning the pain was getting worse and worse. Pulling a person from a body and depositing them in another was probably a very painful process. And Sean Ratchet was the first person to ever experience it, at least, the first on record.  
"Professor Oak is going to show up today, he might be able to help out with the pain." Sillindra left the door open and ran to get an icepack. She knew the moment she took these two into her house that they would be a handful. But all of this was for science. She did not really know if she cared for the two, were they two or one?, but she still cared for them. She wanted to bear witness to Sean Ratchet disappearing from his body, and moving into a new body.


	2. Chapter 2

**Part 2: Dark Forces Begin To Blur The World, Two Become One**  
It had been five years before when Daylan had met Mewtwo. They had met in a laboratory deep beneath the Earth. It had started with a strain of Mew DNA that the scientists of the world were killing each other over. Daylan had taken it and created another Mewtwo, almost exactly the same as the one that had been created, destroyed it's place of birth, and then been taken by Team Rocket. This one seemed tamer though, a lot less independent and evil. It had taken to Daylan.  
When the laboratory was being taken over by a group of rebels wishing to steal the strand of Mew DNA, Mewtwo had protected Daylan, killed all of the rebels. They had then run for it, Daylan holding the strain of DNA in his pocket.  
Five years passed, and now the two stood in a hospital room. Inside, an old man was hooked up to a bed. He was breathing heavily, his heartbeats were slow, small. He was dying. He was coughing heavily every couple minutes.  
"Cigarette?" Daylan asked, pulling a pack from his jeans pocket.  
The old man's face brightened considerably. Despite the fact that he had cancer and the cigarettes were the major problem, he still hadn't had one since he was hospitalized a week ago.  
The old man reached weakly out for the pack. Daylan slapped his hand away.  
"First you tell me what I want to know."  
The old man nodded, eyes on the pack of cigarettes.  
"Tell me everything and this nice pack of smokes is yours. Screw with me and you will be in severe pain. Don't scream for Nurse Joy either. She is asleep and in a locked storage closet at the moment."  
"What..." The old man gasped out. "Do you want?"  
"DNA samples, namely the DNA samples for Darkrai."

Professor Oak approached the small, two story building cautiously. His eyes scanned around for any tails, anyone after him. He waited for Pidgey to fly down to his outstretched arm before entering the house.  
Pidgey circled the Twinleaf Town twice more before descending onto Oak's arm.  
"Nothing?"  
Pidgey cawed.  
"Return to your Pokeball buddy." Oak opened the ball and Pidgey disappeared inside. He put the ball in it's pouch on his belt. He knocked on the door and Sillindra answered, in a lab coat, as was Oak.  
"Good to see you Oak. Could have picked a better time though. It's one in the morning. People will be suspicious." She said.  
Oak closed the door behind him. "I had Pidgey do reconnaissance. No one watching. No one around."  
"You should have stayed somewhere safe. Being out at night is becoming increasingly more dangerous." Sillindra led him to the living room.  
"I know. Team Rocket is getting out of hand. Their operations are mostly secretive, but whatever is going on, they sure are getting more and more powerful. It's almost like Giovanni quit and let someone else take over."  
"That could be." Sillindra muttered. She went to the kitchen and came back with two mugs of coffee.  
Oak took one and thanked her. "Are they asleep?"  
"Been passed out for thirteen hours."  
"Wow."  
"I've been keeping an eye on them. Nothing significant has happened. They are sweating. Talking in their sleep. Saying the same thing at the same time as a matter of fact. It's kind of creepy."  
Oak sipped his coffee. "I'm assuming you were getting ready to go to sleep."  
Sillindra looked at him quizically. "How'd you know."  
"The fact you are wearing no pants under that lab coat and it's zipped completely up. Grabbed the first thing you could find that was nearly body length in a rush to the door." Oak sipped his coffee again.  
"Were you a cop at one time?" Sillindra asked.  
"If I said yes would you run from me? Try to avoid me?"  
Sillindra smiled and took her coffee mug with her up the stairs to her room. "Their room is the first on the left up here Oak. See you in the morning."  
"Yes ma'am." Oak headed upstairs with his coffee mug and was quite happy to see a comfortable chair next to Sean and Lucario's bed and a flatscreen TV.

Tsubaki was out in the forests around Twinleaf Town when the explosion turned the relatively quiet place into a place of supreme terror. Every Pokemon around ran the opposite direction. She had been after an Arbok, but it was hard to get one when every creature around was running for it.

A half an hour before, four Team Rocket members sat in the forest, and opened their bag.  
"Um, where are the guns?" Asked one of them, staring at the empty bag.  
"Good question, I had put them in here a moment ago when we weren't being focused on by the writer."  
"Wait a second, this must be that sickness I've heard of!" Replied another Team Rocket member.  
"A SICKNESS?" The Rocket members replied in unison.  
"Yes, it's called..."  
Everyone closed in. The guy talking's face got dark.  
"4KIDS DISEASE!"  
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" They all screamed.  
"They make the guns invisible! They try to make this kid friendly!"  
"GOOD GOD!"  
"Oh guys, that was the body bag for the corpse of Oak. This is the bag with the guns."  
All the Team Rocket members had a good laugh.

Fifteen minutes later they invaded Sillindra's house.

Oak stood upstairs, watching Lucario and Sean when he heard a floorboard creak. He pulled a pistol from his lab coat. He then went to the door and peeked out. He could see people downstairs. He wondered why they had choose the daytime to invade the house and come for him.  
"Team Rocket. Shit..."  
Sean stood up. He was shirtless, wore black jeans. He was walking toward the door.  
"Stand back!" Oak whispered.  
"I'll deal with them."  
"Wait, you knew they were there?"  
"I could hear them enter. And I could hear their steps. Sillindra must still be asleep."  
Lucario appeared behind Sean.  
"Protect my body." Sean muttered before passing out, crumpling to the floor. Suddenly, Lucario opened the door completely and walked toward the banister and looked down at the four Team Rocket members in the living room.  
One looked up and pointed at him. All of their guns pointed toward him.  
Lucario jumped over the banister and landed in the middle of them all. He then grabbed one's outstretched arm and threw him into one of his companions. They fell onto a couch and one of their pistols went off, clipping another one of their companions shoulders.  
Lucario roundhouse kicked the only uninjured Team Rocket member and then stole his gun.  
The one with the shot shoulder raised her gun and shot. Lucario put a dark shield in front of himself, an aura shield. The bullet ricocheted and smacked into the floor.  
Lucario then jumped across the room and punched the woman in the face, knocking her out.  
"ABORT OPERATION! OAK HAS A LUCARIO! DETONATE THE C4 IN THIRTY SECONDS!" The two Rocket members who had collected on the sofa ran for the door and shut it securely.  
"Shit..." Lucario muttered, jumping up, grabbing onto the banister and hoisting over it. He picked up Sean's body from the bedroom floor, grabbed Oak and ran into Sillindra's bedroom.  
"What the hell is going on?" She asked, barely awake.  
Lucario suddenly turned the whole room black.  
"Aura shield is this powerful?" Oak asked.  
"I'm the only one who can do this. I am the ultimate Lucario."  
The bomb went off.  
The house exploded gloriously, all the furniture, pictures, food, electronics, plants, and everything else decimated to nothing more than piles of ash.


	3. Chapter 3

**Part 3: Fire's of Death Burn In The Hearts of A Few, All Heroes Have Their Failings**  
Twinleaf Town had turned into a mess. The explosion had shattered the windows of every house in town. Fires had leapt from the exploding house and burnt grass, plants, and even houses close to the explosion.  
Sillindra's house itself was nothing but a large pile of rubble. Smoking rubble. Nobody could have survived that explosion.  
People ran out of their houses to see what had happened and were horrified by the site. Various emotions played across the townspeople's faces. One of the unique ones was surprise. The smoke, it was dissipating. It had been a thick black sheet, and now it was disappearing.  
And when the darkness disappeared, four figures could be made out. One was passed out over another's shoulder and two were hugging, probably scared of death sure to come.  
But it hadn't. And two people and a Lucario walked out of the rubble, the Lucario with a body over his shoulder.  
And then two Team Rocket members appeared, machine guns in hand, and started firing bursts at the four. The people screamed. The Rocket members had appeared from seemingly nowhere.  
And then two Houndour's, exoskeletons whiter than sour cream, appeared and tackled the old man as the other three were shot at.

Lucario brought an aura shield up again. He was in pain, the shield from before had taken a lot from him, but it was surprising the wells of power you could tap into when you were facing death. Bullets ricocheted around and he noticed that the townspeople were watching on, apparently too in shock to care that they were in the path of danger.  
Lucario ran at the Team Rocket members. The same ones he had seen escape the house not a minute and a half before. He bared his fangs and jumped up, coming down on one with a kick that hit him in the face, sending his head back so hard that his neck snapped.  
Lucario landed on the dead man's body and grabbed the machine gun from the other. He started smacking him in the head with it repeatedly, using the butt of the gun as a blunt instrument to turn the man's head into a caved in, bloody mess.  
The Houndour were attacking Oak, and one had scratched his face. But suddenly, a Zangoose appeared out of nowhere, and it ran toward the Houndour's, claws glowing red. It attacked them faster than the eye could catch. It moved like a tornado, and eventually both of the Houndour's were cut up so much that they couldn't even stand.  
Lucario threw the hurt Pokemon off Oak and helped him up.  
"Good job Zangoose!" Said a girl. She was holding a Pokeball and Zangoose returned inside.  
Oak licked the blood from around his lips. His face had three large scratches across it. He cursed. "Damn Team Rocket."  
Sillindra was staring at the smoldering remains of her home. "My...my house..." She gasped out.  
The girl walked towards the group and stopped in front of Oak. "You're Professor Oak!" She said.  
"Correct." He muttered, dabbing the blood off his face with his coat.  
The girl looked at the body of human Sean. "Is he...?"  
Sillindra had snapped out of her staring by now and noticed the limp form of human Sean. "He's gone."  
Lucario (or Sean) walked toward them.  
"And what would your name be?" Oak asked.  
"Tsubaki." The girl replied.  
Lucario grabbed the body of Sean and hefted it over his shoulder. "We need a pyre, I am going to burn my old body. I won't be needing it anymore. And as it burns, I want to know why Team Rocket just blew up a house and nearly killed us all Oak." Sean the Lucario spoke like Lucario had before. He didn't have his original voice anymore.  
"I want to know what's going on too!" Tsubaki exclaimed.  
"Girl, you have no need to be involved."  
"I bet I'll be in trouble if they find out I was the one who made Zangoose mutilate those Houndour's. And if that's the case, I already know you guys are in trouble. It would be better to work together."  
Oak thought for a moment. "She's right. Satellite imagery probably picked up everything that took place. Meaning we're all in big trouble. For saving my life, I say she should stay. At least until we can assert the fact it's safe."  
Tsubaki looked at the dead body for a second, stupefied.  
"I just caught on, sorry, but I believe you said that you were going to burn your old body?"  
"I'll explain as we find a place to burn me." Sean muttered.

In a hasty attempt to create a fire to burn the corpse of Sean in, Sean ended up setting fire to a couple bushes and then throwing the corpse on top. It burned gloriously and as everyone watched on, Sean sat down on the grass, glistening with morning dew. He looked up at Oak and Oak sighed.  
Oak gestured for everyone to sit down. Sillindra and Tsubaki sat next to Sean and Oak sat across from them, his face downcast, his eyes wandering.  
"Here's what happened. It's pretty simple. They approached me, for whatever reason, asking me to find the Godstone for them."  
"Godstone?" Sean asked. He seemed indifferent to the fact that he was a Lucario now, as if he had come to terms with this fate a long time ago. Then again, it was probably enjoyable to know you had so much power at your disposal. Oak couldn't even guess how he had created an aura shield, which was an attack no Lucario had. Maybe Lucario's themselves have hard times concentrating their aura or wills or something into a shape other than a giant ball with a lot of force behind it. Maybe having the mind partly of a human meant that bending his aura attacks was not as hard as it would be for a natural born Lucario.  
"The Godstone?" Sean asked, tilting his head sideways as if trying to read what was going on in Oak's head as he stared at Sean.  
Sillindra was looking at Sean as well. "Can I see how pointy those horns on your hand are?" She asked.  
"Go for it." Sean muttered back.  
She did so as Oak snapped back to the real world. Tsubaki was staring into the fire, watching the body burn.  
"The Godstone," Oak said, "is an ancient stone regarded as myth that can turn a Pokemon into a godly Pokemon. Basically, it can make a Pokemon more powerful than any other. Some believe that Mew was always a normal, flying Pokemon until it touched the Godstone and became what it is. Same with Darkrai. Basically, Team Rocket came to me wanting to know where it was located or where it was generally conceded to be."  
"OW!" Sillindra yelped, having pricked her finger on Sean's hand horn. "That's sharp."  
"And you blew them off?" Sean asked, disregarding Sillindra.  
"Pretty much. We had a Pokemon battle, I won, they ran away. You know, like it used to be before everyone was fearing for their lives and they started setting their Pokemon to "kill" instead of "battle". We used to live in an ideal world where ten year old's went out on their own to collect Pokemon and become trainers. Now we live in a world where if they went out on their own, they would more than likely be found dead in a forest. Pokemon instincts have changed, as if someone flipped a switch."  
"I've been studying this." Sillindra said. "I've figured that someone, somewhere, had set up some sort of high pitched radio frequencies of some sort that only a Pokemon could hear. If this is true, than the person who set up those frequencies is the one who made Pokemon become more beasts and less companions. As Tsubaki noticed more than likely, her domesticated and trained Pokemon is still domesticated and trained. But instead of being on "knock out the other Pokemon" mode it is on "Kill the other Pokemon or severely hurt it" mode."  
"And that is when the shit hit the fan." Oak said. "The moment the switch was thrown and Pokemon became the violent creatures we now see."  
Oak stood up. "We're going to be wanted. Team Rocket has expanded. They are more than thieves, more than the idiots Jessie and James who permeated the news ten years ago with their idiotic exploits. They are now a well put together group with technicians, assassins, and every other type of baddie. They have become an organization with the potential to take over Sinnoh and establish themselves as the government, the dictators, or whatever they wish. We are running from an organization that could kill us if they sent the right people. We are in more danger than we think."  
Sean stood up and grabbed Oak. "You brought us into this damn mess old man. You're the one who came, you're the one who caused Sillindra's house to get blown up, for us to almost die! You selfish old bastard." Sean lifted his fist and Oak started to flinch. Tsubaki had gotten up and grabbed his arm.  
"Don't hit him. Please..."She said. She looked down at the ground and shuffled her feet. "It's stupid to fight each other. Despite the fact he is the cause for all this, it won't help the problem to hit him. We should team up and do something about the problem, not get worked up about it."  
Sean looked at Oak. He was still flinching away from Sean's cocked fist. Sean let his hand swing to his side and put Oak down.  
"What Pokemon do we have?" Sean asked. "Obviously, I am a Pokemon."  
"I don't have one." Sillindra said. "I never have caught a Pokemon."  
"We'll change that." Sean said. "Tsubaki?"  
"Zangoose and Gengar." Tsubaki replied.  
"Oak?"  
"Pidgey, Charizard, and Dragonite."  
"Good enough." Sean looked at the pyre, saw that his human body was gone. "Where is the last known place the Godstone was located?" Directed at Oak.  
Oak looked around and whispered into Sean's ear. "Rock Island."  
"That's where we are headed. If we find that stone than we will have a lot of power, enough to hopefully take out Team Rocket."  
"What if Team Rocket finds it first?" Sillindra asked.  
"They won't. They'll be too dead to even touch it." Sean the Lucario looked at Sillindra. "At the moment, I'm your Pokemon if anyone asks. We'll get you some Pokeballs and start finding you some Pokemon."  
She nodded.  
"Which way is Rock Island?"  
Oak nodded a direction. "Northwards. The boat is in Conclave City, it can take us to the island unless we have posters all over the place and have bounties on our heads."  
"Which would not be good." Sean muttered.  
"We'll head that way and see what happens." Tsubaki said happily. She apparently was excited for this journey.  
"Right. Let's head off." And so they did, leaving the pyre behind, still burning brightly.

The door to the research facility exploded inwards, crushing three scientists. They started screaming and running for it as a man entered with a Mewtwo.  
Daylan laughed and started shooting the scientists with a pistol. They screamed as their comrades fell to the ground, blood collecting on the tiles. Mewtwo also helped, blowing up computer consoles, the explosions taking legs and arms and heads with them.  
When all the scientists were dead but one, Daylan walked over to him and stepped on his chest. He bent down and put the gun to his temple.  
"Where is the Darkrai DNA?" He asked politely.  
The scientist pointed at a large system of tubes connected to a computer console that was in the back of the small lab. "Please don't kill me!"  
"Sorry, I can't hear you, the pistols making my ears ring." Daylan shot the man in between the eyes and walked toward the tubes.

It was at Lake Verity that the foursome saw a zeppelin landed on the side of the water. It had a large R on it, and a couple members of Team Rocket were patrolling with machine guns in hand. The large zeppelin was more than likely used by an officer in Team Rocket, a higher up. And this mindset, and the thought of maybe obtaining a flying vessel to use to get to Rock Island led them to sneak past the three guards who were half asleep and not even carrying their weapons correctly, and enter the zeppelin. They hid in a bathroom and hoped that soon enough the zeppelin would get up in the air.

"We have contacted the local police about the criminals. Officer Jenny's are already patrolling every road, searching for Oak and the others. Satellite imagery picked up a fire in the woods and we had Jenny check it out. Apparently they were burning a body, we believe it was the one the Lucario had slung over his shoulder during the stand-off this morning. We will patrol the area from above with the zeppelin and continue contact with you, sir, and continue watching the satellite imagery for any sign of these people. When we find them, we will be remorseless in dispatching them." Colonel Xarosen stood in front of the lake, the breeze ruffling his hair and blowing his overcoat's tail off to one side. He held a cell phone at his ear.  
"I'm depending on you, and if you fail me, you will be demoted." The voice on the other side replied.  
"I know sir."


	4. Chapter 4

**Part 4: The world crumbles, death becomes the new life, and emotions are the most powerful ****weapon**  
The zeppelin floated in the air, Team Rocket members at computer consoles. They watched satellite imagery, helped navigate the beast of a balloon with GPS, and kept up to date on local police activities.  
One though, had to use the bathroom really bad.

Sitting on the tile floor of the bathroom were Sillindra, Tsubaki, and Oak. Sean sat on the sink, head pressed back against the wall, eyes shut. No one could tell if he was asleep or just resting, and nobody wanted to disturb him.  
Everyone was disturbed though when the door to the bathroom was tried. Finding that the door was locked, the man at the door knocked loudly.  
"I have to pee really bad! Hurry up!" He complained.  
Sean opened his eyes. "I think it is time we show ourselves." He said.  
"What?" The guy on the other side of the door asked.  
Sean jumped off the sink. He had Oak unlock the door since Sean had lost his opposable digits. Oak stepped away as Sean revealed himself. Despite being a bit less than three foot shorter than the man who had to pee, he still wet himself when Sean punched him in the gut, doubling him over. An uppercut then knocked the man out.  
"Let's go. Get Pokemon out. We'll more than likely need them." Sean said.  
"All I have are flying Pokemon though." Oak said. "Not good for these tight spaces." He motioned toward the small corridor that led off of the bathroom.  
"Tsubaki, take out your Zangoose and Gengar. I need them to help me out. Anybody a good shot?"  
Oak raised his hand.  
"Take his pistol. Cover our backs. I'll go up front. The girls stay in the middle, preferably with some sort of weapon. Frisk his body Oak. See if he has a knife or something." Oak did so and pulled a long, thick knife from a sheath on the man's ankle.  
"Give it to one of them."  
Tsubaki let Gengar and Zangoose loose. She pointed at Sillindra. "I'll have Zangoose protect me and Gengar can back up Sean. Sillindra should take it."  
"Alright." Sean walked into the corridor. Gengar walked over to his side as they began their descent through the dark corridor. Sillindra and Tsubaki followed along, with Oak behind, pistol cocked and at the ready.  
Sean walked down the corridor slowly. The corridor was made up of mirrors on the walls. Sean looked at himself. He noticed his face, his body, his tail, his spikes. He was a Lucario now, a Pokemon. He knew it would happen, but it was still a shock to see himself in the mirror and notice that he was now a completely different being, a creature with powers no human could ever get.  
Despite the fact it was kind of odd to see himself in the mirror and not see his usually rugged, long haired face, he still found it cool. He had a whole new life ahead of him, at least, if he survived the events taking place at the moment.  
An alarm sounded and Sean noticed that there was a video camera in the corner of the corridor.  
"That's not the sound I want to hear at the moment..." Oak muttered.  
Three Team Rocket members ran into the hall, pistols cocked. Sean brought up and aura shield as the bullets exploded from the barrel. They hit the shield and flew off various directions, one shattering a mirror on the wall.  
Gengar was the first to make a move. He ran at the shooters and used shadow claw, cutting the arm off of one of the assailants. The arm with the gun fell. The Rocket member fell to the ground, screaming.  
Oak shot at one of them, hitting him in the stomach and knee. The man crumpled to the ground, blood pooling around him.  
Sean was the last to attack, using aura ball to blow the chest of the third assailant to pieces.  
The group then ran past the defeated Team Rocket members, and into a room full of Houndour's. It was a dining room, white fold up tables set up with chairs thrown about. There must have been twenty Houndour's in the room.  
"Why is it that whenever you see Team Rocket they are surrounded by these damn dogs?" Asked Oak.  
Sean, Gengar, and Zangoose walked into the room. Oak stood in the hallway with the girls as the Houndour's slowly approached the Pokemon in front of them.  
"I know you're watching Team Rocket. I know your leader is more than likely watching. I'd like him to know that as long as it takes, as hard as the battle gets, we will still prevail. You may have assassins, guns, armies of Pokemon, but they are all going to fall. And then your leader will fall as well."  
"Good luck with that." A man appeared in the doorway on the opposite side of the dining area. The Houndour's whimpered as he neared them and backed away, as if he had a bubble shield around him that repelled the beasts. He wore an overcoat, open at the front but clasped together at his breast by a giant, gaudy R. He wore an eyepatch on his left eye, and a cigarette smoked from his mouth.  
"Who the hell are you?" Sean asked.  
"A talking Lucario. Who knew? If it weren't for the fact you are a wanted criminal I would probably capture you and take you to the boss, he would find you quite a prize. Especially all the power you have." He continued forward and stopped a couple feet away from Sean and the other two Pokemon. "I'll give you an option though being the person I am. Join us and allow us to take you to the boss, reform and become a member of Team Rocket. We'll have to kill Oak, but the others can be given back their lives. We'll buy the lady a new house. And we'll give the other girl some money."  
Sean looked back at the others. Oak was petrified and the other two were shaking terribly.  
He looked back at the man in the overcoat. "What's your name?"  
The man in the overcoat laughed. "I am Colonel Xarosen. Also known as Commander of the west coast Team Rocket Army."  
"Xarosen?" Sean looked at him.  
"Yes?"  
"Go fuck yourself." Sean attempted to punch the man but he dodged to the right and came around with a kick. Sean ducked under it and tried to kick his leg out from under him, but in mid-kick the Colonel jumped backward. Sean followed him and tried a roundhouse kick at his face. Xarosen blocked his kick with his forearms.  
"KILL THEM HOUNDOURS!" Xarosen yelled as he backed away from Sean and unclasped his overcoat and threw it to the side. He then crouched and got into a fighting stance.  
The Houndour's attacked and Zangoose started tearing through them fast. They fell to their stomach's, legs cut out from under them, head's decapitated.  
Gengar used shadow ball and blew away a couple of the dogs.  
Sean was ducking under the punches of Xarosen when Oak stepped into the room and shot at him. The bullet imbedded itself into Xariosen's suit and stayed there. He pulled it out of his bullet proof shirt and threw it to the ground.  
"If you're going to shoot," Xarosen laughed, "Aim for my damn head old man!"  
Sean went after Xarosen again and yelled at Oak to back off and take out the rest of the Houndour's. Oak nodded and helped Gengar and Zangoose.

A battle taking place on multiple fronts, in one room. We see Sean the Lucario and Xarosen, a man with blond hair combed back, an eyepatch, and a cigarette still dangling from his lips, battling off to one side. We see ten Houndour's being picked off quickly by Oak, Zangoose, and Gengar. We see a Team Rocket member approaching behind Sillindra and Tsubaki, knife poised and at the ready.  
In ten seconds, the Houndour's are all defeated, the battle between Xarosen and Sean is still at a stalemate, and the Team Rocket grunt is about to shove the knife into Tsubaki's side.  
At twelve seconds from the time Oak starts shooting, Oak turns around.  
At thirteen, Oak screams at the girls and aims at the Team Rocket man.  
At sixteen he has cocked the pistol and attempts to shoot, but finds he has run out of bullets.  
At seventeen, Sillindra turns around, knife in hand.  
At eighteen, Tsubaki falls to one side as the knife plunges through air.  
At nineteen, Sillindra's knife plunges through the Team Rocket man's neck, the tip protruding from the back of it.  
At twenty-one, the Team Rocket member falls to the ground, blood gurgling from his mouth, entering his death throes.  
At twenty-three, Sillindra falls to her knees, having never killed someone in cold blood, and weeps.  
At twenty-five, the battle between Sean and Xarosen still rages, not one punch or kick having landed on either of them.

Xarosen dodged another punch and backed into a wall. Sean was breathing hard, the battle had raged for almost a minute and a half, ninety seconds of punching and kicking to no avail but to tire themselves.  
"You're good. I never thought I would fight hand to hand with a Pokemon." Xarosen was sweating, he leaned against the wall and pulled the cigarette from his mouth.  
Sean started to walk away.  
"What's your problem?" Xarosen asked.  
Sean turned around and ran at him. He punched at Xarosen. Xarosen blocked it, and Sean used his hand spike on the opposite arm to cut a cable against the wall.  
"Oh shit..." Xarosen noticed he was backed against a door. And as he noticed this Sean shoved him through, the cable that opened and closed it severing having made it easily open with the tap of a finger. Xarosen fell out but laughed and he opened a Pokeball. A Swellow appeared beneath him and he landed on it. It flew him back up to the zeppelin.  
Sean yelled at Oak. "CLOSE THIS DOOR QUICK!"  
Oak ran over and closed it before Xarosen could jump back in.  
Everyone was panting. They wanted to rest, but knew it was impossible with Team Rocket after them. They decided to continue forward. Sillindra was still on her knees, blood on her hand. Tsubaki was next to her, trying to help her up, comfort her.  
"I...I killed someone." Sillindra said.  
"To save me." Tsubaki muttered. "It's alright."  
Sean and Oak walked out of the dining area and into the cockpit. It was huge, and there were ten or so people working at computers. The zeppelin was apparently run by computer and not by human hands.  
Sean grabbed one of the techies from behind and raised him up. "HEY!"  
Everyone turned around, slack-jawed.  
"Turn off surveillance or everyone dies!" Sean said.  
The technicians worked hastily.  
"It's done!" One squealed.  
"Is it done Oak?"  
Oak walked over to one of the computers and checked it. He nodded.  
"Set our course to Rock Island or everyone is dead!"  
They worked hastily and the zeppelin turned around slowly, then started moving toward Rock Island.  
Sean set the techie down. "Do your job and do what we say or else you'll be working a zeppelin in the great here-after."  
The techie nodded and ran to his computer.

Xarosen pulled his cell phone from his pocket.  
"I enjoyed the part where you were pushed out of the zeppelin Colonel. Would you be so kind as to kill them, or shall I send a more competent member of Team Rocket to take care of the pests?"  
"Sorry boss. I was careless."  
"They have shut down the camera feed but I can still track them through computer. They are pretty stupid. I can track them from anything. They are heading toward a small island called Rock Island. They are apparently attempting to hide from everyone there. I'm sending our Navy to surround the island. I want them all dead. Except for the Lucario. I still want him."

Sillindra was still in shock, but she was sound asleep as the zeppelin continued toward the island. Tsubaki slept as well. Oak stared out the front window of the cockpit of the zeppelin and Sean joined him. The sun was setting and the moon rose in it's stead.  
"We're being tailed by Xarosen." Sean muttered.  
"He hasn't tried to destroy the zeppelin, maybe he thinks the techies will try to kill us."  
Sean looked at them. "They aren't fighters. There were only five army types on board. And they were all killed."  
Oak nodded. "It's odd though. Why would a Colonel be protected by five guards, a bunch of Houndour's, and be on a zeppelin?"  
"He probably is cocky and thinks he can handle himself and doesn't need a guard, and more than likely had all those Houndour's as pets. I have no idea where they were originally going, but at the moment, I am sick of asking questions. I'm going to sleep. Keep guard. Kick me if you need me to wake up."  
"Got'cha."  
Sean lay down and fell asleep almost instantly.

When Sean awoke, they had just landed on Rock Island. Sillindra was awake and so was Oak. Tsubaki was still asleep. The sun was up and looking out of the cockpit window, Sean noticed that the island was rather aptly named. The zeppelin was landed on a beach, but beyond it were the sheer cliff walls of a canyon.  
"It was pretty cool to see from the air." Oak said, noticing how Sean looked at the canyon. "It is basically a straight walk through the canyon, and then it stops in a large circular clearing dotted with rocks. And that's it. Apparently, very few people come to the island because there are no Pokemon."  
Sean walked over to Tsubaki and shook her awake.  
"We're there." He said. She stood and rubbed her eyes.

They left the zeppelin and allowed the techies to take it where they wished. No point killing them, they fulfilled their purpose.  
The foursome entered the canyon and walked for almost five minutes down the straight path, about ten foot side to side.  
And after those five minutes, a Swellow swooped through the air and a man jumped off it's back and landed on the ground with a roll.  
Tsubaki grabbed her Pokeballs but Sean put a paw on her hand. "Don't. He's mine."  
Xarosen stood. He had left his overcoat aboard the zeppelin, so all he wore was his bulletproof clothing. He made his Swellow return to it's Pokeball and laughed.  
"We meet again Lucario. This time I want to at least hit you. I'm not authorized to kill you, but I am authorized to kill your friends. It appears you are not one of their Pokemon, I guess you're just a companion. I don't care, you seem intelligent and I ask again, willingly come with me and no one but Oak dies."  
Sean crouched and raised his fists.  
"Let's go. Round two."  
Xarosen laughed and the two circled each other as Tsubaki, Sillindra, and Oak backed away.  
"COME ON!" Xarosen ran at Sean and jumped, spinning in midair with his leg outstretched. Sean blocked it and Xarosen fell to the ground, twirling on one knee with his leg still held out, attempting to trip Sean. Sean jumped and attempted to kick him but his leg was grabbed by Xarosen.  
Sean fell to the ground, but put his arms out and landed on the palms of his paws. He used his other leg, the one that wasn't being held onto, to kick Xarosen in the face.  
Xarosen let go of Sean's leg and stood up, rubbing the spot on his cheek that he was hit.  
"You hit me." Xarosen said. He then burst out laughing. "Very good! But it's just started!" He pulled a knife from his belt and hurled it at Sean's stomach. Sean turned to one side as the knife flew by, embedding itself in the canyon wall behind him.  
More knives came at him. Sean ran from them as fast as he could, and fell to the ground on his butt, sliding down the canyon as knives flew above him.  
"COME ON!" Xarosen ran at Sean and attempted to stomp on his head with his heavy boot. Sean flipped himself to his feet and turned around, letting loose a kick to Xarosen's face as he did. Xarosen had seen this and kicked himself at Sean's leg. The two legs met, Xarosen's knee meeting at Sean's toes. Sean was almost two thirds Xarosen's height.  
Sean juked to the right, prompting Xarosen to go to the left, where Sean's foot met Xarosen's stomach. Despite the fact he was wearing bulletproof clothing, they were just flimsy clothes in the first place. The nanomachines that were mixed into the threads were what repelled the bullets. They would also absorb the shock of the shot. But a kick or punch was something they were not programmed to repel because it wasn't going fast enough. It was slow enough that it could squeeze through the nanomachines, yet fast enough that it doubled Xarosen over.  
He laughed again. "Tricky bastard, ain't you?"  
"Let's continue?"  
Xarosen pulled a pistol from his pocket, cocked it and aimed it at Sillindra. "She's dead next move you make. Join us. I've tried to be polite. You were a nice workout, I'm sweating pretty good. But I need to get this over with. The zeppelin is waiting and I need you to come with me. Offer stands. Girls are walking out with reparations for what has happened, Oak walks away with the angels. You walk away with a job. What do you say? Or do you want the bitch to enjoy being a brain casserole?"  
Sean looked at him. "Let me think for a second."  
He turned around slowly, but then turned again, very fast. His tail started to shimmer and it smacked into Xarosen's hand, knocking the pistol to the ground and breaking the hand. Xarosen screamed as Sean continued his spin, jumping into the air and kicking out, a mid-air roundhouse kick. Xarosen fell and Sean fell on top of him, knee on his neck, pressing down hard.  
"How do you contact your boss?" Sean asked.  
Xarosen pointed at the phone clipped to his belt.  
Sean took the phone and grabbed Xarosen' s head.  
"Go to hell." Sean used an aura sphere that completely engulfed the head of Xarosen and when the sphere disappeared, nothing was left but a skull and bits of melted flesh.  
Sean stood. Tsubaki ran to him.  
"What was that flashy tail attack?" She asked.  
"Iron tail. I had a dream last night, my first as a Lucario. I saw that attack, used it. I guess I'm learning how to be a Lucario in my dreams, subconsciously replaying events in Lucario' s past before I took him over."  
Oak and Sillindra walked over. Sillindra was crying.  
Tsubaki grabbed her. "She's had a hard time lately. Her house has burned down, she's killed a man, she has a gun to her head. Next chance we have, she needs to rest."  
Sean grabbed a Pokeball from the belt of Xarosen. It was empty. He handed it to Sillindra.  
"We're gonna find you a Pokemon to help you along. Oak, hold onto this cellphone. His boss is likely to call. We'll make sure to leave a message if he does."  
"Yes sir." Oak said sarcastically.  
"Let's continue on." Sean said. Oak followed and Sillindra followed being helped along by Tsubaki.

"So, that's why nobody has found the Godstone."  
Oak looked at the piles of bones lying around.  
Sean walked out to the middle of the large, circular area. Giant rocks, as Oak advertised, were dotted about the area. And then there was a shrine on the opposite side, built into the wall of the canyon.  
Sean had a severe sense of deja vu.  
But before he could try to think back and wonder why, he running as a giant green blur fell from the sky and buried itself in the ground. It pulled it's head out, shook it a bit, and then came at Sean again.  
The Rayquaza attacked.  
"Holy crap! That's one of the most rare Pokemon in the world!" Oak screamed as Sean backflipped onto it's back and rid it as it flew up into the air.  
Sean started to punch it in the head. It shook him off and he was about to fall to the ground when he landed on the back of Oak's Dragonite.  
Dragonite dropped Sean onto the ground. "Thanks." Sean muttered as Rayquaza shot a fire ball from it's mouth as it descended again. Sean jumped out of the way and used as aura sphere as it hit the ground again. The aura sphere blasted into it's side and threw it across the ground like a bouncy ball. It stopped against a rock, curled up. It tried to get up, but between the beat up head and the now unbearable pain of the aura sphere, it passed out.  
"Sillindra! Catch it!" Sean screamed.  
Tsubaki let go of Sillindra as she ran toward it and threw the Pokeball at it.  
The Rayquaza was transported inside. The Pokeball shook for a moment, the light on it yellow for a second, and then white, the all clear sign.  
Oak pumped his fist. "You caught a Rayquaza! Great job Sillindra!"  
She went to grab the Pokeball. She picked it up and laughed. "WOO HOO! I have a Pokemon!"  
Tsubaki smiled. "I'm glad she's happy."  
Sean walked toward the Godstone slowly. It was inside the shrine, and was a small stone that glowed blue.  
Oak showed up behind him. "Touch it and see what happens."  
Sean slowly, hesitantly, went for it.  
Suddenly, his hand went through it, and he screamed and then entered a dream state.  
He saw the circle, the shrine on the other side. He was a person, and a Lucario was on his side. A Rayquaza lay on it's side to the left. The Lucario the small hand of whoever Sean was in the body of, and took him to the Godstone. Together, they touched it.  
And then the hands of the two entwined within the Godstone, and Sean was now inside the Lucario and looked over at the little boy beside him.  
The dream ended.  
And Sean looked at himself.  
"I have been here when I was little. Me and this Lucario had come here and touched the stone at the same time. And because of it, I was turned into him."  
Sean looked at his paws. "This was what the Godstone granted me. I've already gotten it's power. I was turned into a Lucario."  
Suddenly, a loud BANG made the foursome look down the canyon.

Surrounding the island were twelve battleships, each carrying twenty-five men.  
The cell phone rang and Oak answered.  
"Hello Oak. I know you have the phone because I am tracking you on satellite. Give up and allow my friends to take you to my base so we can discuss things."  
"Who are you?" Oak asked.  
The call was ended.  
"Never a dull moment." Oak muttered.


	5. Chapter 5

**Part 5: Darkness Crushes The Sun, A Heaven On The World For One Means A Hell For Many Others**  
Daylan slowly entered Team Rocket's compound. It was guarded heavily by men with machine guns cradled in their arms and Houndour's by their sides. There were men in towers with sniper rifles, ready at a moment's notice to fire at anyone trying to infiltrate.  
Daylan was escorted into a lobby. His Mewtwo was following close behind. They were both frisked and brought through a metal detector before they were cleared to go beyond the mint green linoleum lobby.  
The hallway was like going through a doctor's office. Solid wood doors opened into small little office areas. The walls were covered in an awful wallpaper that seemed to have come from thirty years before. The floors were white tiles, smudged with dirt and grime from the shoes of many of Team Rocket's officers walking these halls.  
The office and hospital like air and decor was simply a facade though. Because when you got to the end of the area there was a large steel door, guarded by two men and with multiple security cameras panning the room in case trouble came. The door was only opened by a retinal scanner.  
One of Daylan's escorts walked to the scanner and placed his eye in it. There was a beep and the door opened up. Daylan and Mewtwo walked into the giant elevator.  
It was like the ones you see in fancy hotels. The awful wallpaper returned, but it was also paneled at the bottom with oak and had a gold bar to hold on to.  
Daylan and Mewtwo slumped against the back of the elevator as their escort punched some buttons and it descended.

The waves had been lapping gently against the shores of Rock Island, but now the waves had become giant, crashing onto the shore like a beast against it's cage. A storm was rolling in, a giant one. Possibly of hurricane proportions. Lightning fell from the sky and thunder boomed. The twelve battleships around the island were rocking back and forth, being thrown into the air as if they were toys by the waves.  
But that was not the concern of the people on board. They were too preoccupied deploying units onto the island and preparing torpedoes to bring the canyon walls down and expose the criminals.  
And as twenty men, machine guns cradled in arms and various Pokemon following along ran down the canyon and passed by the body of who used to be their commander, Xarosen, they steeled themselves for the earthquake about to come.  
The man commanding the operation stood on the bridge of the command ship and had his hand on a trigger. He looked at the sheer cliff walls before him and grabbed his radio from it's perch on the bulkhead.  
"Fire." He pressed down on the trigger and the ship shook for a second as a torpedo flew out of it's firing tube and toward the island.

When the first torpedo hit, shaking the island and blowing part of the canyon wall to smithereens, Sillindra had fallen backward and hit her head on a rock, passing out. Tsubaki ran to her but was tripped up by another rumble of the earth as a second torpedo struck the canyon.  
Sean had fallen as well, finding that being on the ground was the optimum place as the canyon walls crumbled into the sea around them.  
Oak had fallen and passed out as well.  
And then the torpedo hit the canyon, and blew up. And the Godstone's shrine exploded and the canyon collapsed onto it.  
Sean smiled. He had it's power. Now nobody else would ever get it. The idiots had destroyed one of their only saving graces.  
It took all of a minute before the canyon walls surrounding the circular area of the island had fallen into the sea and the battleships moved closer. And it took only fifteen seconds more for troops to appear and grab the fallen Sean, Oak, Tsubaki, and Sillindra. Sean did not struggle, he was too shook up. And he couldn't do anything anyway when the butt of a gun smacked into the back of his head and darkness clouded his vision.

"It's done. We have captured them."  
"Good. Is the Lucario in restraints? Is his power hindered? Because you know what will happen if you fail me."  
"Yes sir. They are in the brig and there is no hope of escape. With eleven other battleships surrounding us, even if they did by some miracle escape they would be killed before they could get anywhere."  
"There might be a double-agent on board your ship Gare. And if so, I want him exposed and killed. This situation becomes more and more annoying. Oak has friends. And they are in high places. My plans are coming to fruition. Daylan is here with the Darkrai DNA, the assassins are set, and I am sitting in my comfortable chair and enjoying watching everything on the televisions before me. Keep me happy like this, and maybe a promotion will be in order. Get them here, get them into the facility, get them locked up in here and I will come down myself with a shiny new general badge. General Gare, sounds good right?"  
"Yes sir."  
"Have a good trip home."  
"Thank you sir."

Sean awoke with a start. A bucket of water had been thrown at his head and splashed against him. It was freezing. He opened his eyes and gasped, shaking his head. He looked around. All of his friends were crumpled on the floor of the brig, apparently knocked out by the earthquake or by the Rocket member's machine gun butts. He noticed he himself was in a chair, large metal clasps over his hands. He tried an aura sphere, but noticed that he couldn't do it. The power had been sucked out of him.  
The man who had thrown the water at him strolled in front of Sean. He bent down and inspected the Lucario face of Sean. Sean flinched away. The man's large hands were slipped into leather gloves.  
"You're the infamous Lucario?" The man laughed. "YOU are the one who killed Xarosen?"  
"Killed 'im real good." Sean sneered.  
The man laughed. He then punched Sean in his stomach. Sean was thrown straight-backed into the chair. Spittle fell from his mouth.  
"Right now, you have no power. You have no fight! You have nothing! You are nothing! Xarosen was incompetent, a high school football player who had the muscle, but it was all a facade for the idiot beneath! I'm the real deal!"  
"And you seem like the high school pretty boy, a narcissist and thinks he's above everyone else." Sean smiled.  
"FUCK YOU!" The man punched the Lucario in the stomach twice. Sean steeled himself for it but the wind was still knocked from him. He was gasping for breath.  
"YOU ARE NOTHING!"  
Sean spit a bit of blood out of his mouth. "Quit being a pussy. Take the clasps off and get me out of the chair, then let's see who is nothing."  
"Gare!" Yelled one of the people on the other side of the brig bars.  
"I won't let this piece of shit get on my nerves."Gare turned around and walked toward the door. "Oak will be executed in an hour. Decide how to kill him for me."  
"Yes sir!" The guard said, saluting Gare.  
"And I'll be back for the Lucario later."

Sniper rifles are quite powerful weapons. Case in point, as the assassin stood on the roof of Oreburgh City's largest office building, he squeezed the trigger lightly and watched through the sites as the head of Sinnoh's president exploded like a watermelon full of C4.  
The assassin ran for it, opening a Pokeball that contained a Charizard and flew away.  
He had left his sniper rifle on the roof and etched onto it's barrel was a large "R". Team Rocket.

All across Sinnoh, assassins were taking out politicians, highly respected Pokemon trainers, and anyone with any sort of political power. And at every murder site a sniper rifle was found resting against a rooftop, an R etched into it's barrel.


	6. Chapter 6

**PART 6: Weary of Darkness The Light Shines Through (1): The March of Legends**  
The people grow a dislike to war and campaign against it. But the peace talks, the marches, the anti-war riots that begin in the streets of once bustling towns and cities now reduced to nothing more than open-air insane asylum's fall on deaf ears. The man who ordered the political killings watches on in his office and taps his desk with his index finger, watching the computer before him and the television monitors all over the walls, watching as his men walk through their ships, through their zeppelins, start preparing for the imminent mobilization of an army. They train their Pokemon's in the many facilities found throughout the multiple Team Rocket bases, they start raising their Team Rocket flags in many towns and cities, prompting more riots.  
And as the men and women who had once walked the world as prominent business people and writers and owners of households begin to show their rabid side, their bestial side, the Pokemon raging inside, they unknowingly tear their once perfect world down to the ruins they associated with Team Rocket's killings and slow take-over of Sinnoh. They started the fires, they started the violence in the streets, as Team Rocket stood with backs turned to these people, instead preparing the instruments that would bring these people back to their senses, show them that their blaming Team Rocket for all the problems was all for nothing and that the people they blamed were in fact going to bring a much better peace to the world. They may have shot the people put in place to keep the peace, but it was only for the protection of the people.  
And as deluded as this sounded to normal ears, Team Rocket believed this. They saluted their flag fully knowing that their actions, though despised by the public, were for the reconstruction of a world that would have been nothing more but burning rubble had a competent leader not been set in place.  
And the man in the white mask, the mysterious leader of Team Rocket, was that competent leader. He was the man who would be able to save the world from the threat of the crazy Pokemon that were killing here and there, making walking into the woods at night, or outside of town even, something nobody would think of; creating the town guards that carried rifles and protected their friends, family, and fellow townspeople from the ravenous Pokemon.  
It would all play out exactly as the man in the white mask planned. Despite the fact he had been just taken over Team Rocket a month ago, he still had everything set up outside of Team Rocket, had the plans mapped out for months. He had gotten friends in Team Rocket, made his moves, took over. And now, Team Rocket was less a team, and more a militaristic agency.  
The people blamed the killings on the war that was going to come, on the slow destruction of the world. But it is not the shot that starts the war, it is the intentions of the people behind the gun. And Team Rocket's intentions were perfectly righteous on every account.  
The man in the white mask sat back in his chair and waited for the other team to make their move.

The hull of the ship cut through the giant waves. The storm above had become something of hurricane proportions. The people on the deck of the ship scrambled to the inside. The other eleven ships of the armada played a similar scene. Men and women grabbed ropes and tied everything down to the ship before running inside. Lightning crackled, thunder boomed. Rain pelted the deck, the heads of the navy-men, and hit the sea like bullets from a machine gun with a never-ending clip.  
The lead ship tilted to the left and right, rocked up and down as it encountered waves. Tsubaki, Sillindra, and Oak were thrown about the brig, rolling on the floor, thrown against the wall, against the metal chair Sean was strapped into. Sean sat back against the chair, eyes closed and tried to keep calm. He wasn't too happy. He was held in the brig of a ship, he had been beaten by a Team Rocket officer while he was down.  
He had promised himself that when he got out of his restraints, once the clasps over his arms that ate at his aura were gone, he would kill Gare. He would find him and show him true pain, show him the true power of a person provoked and pushed to the edge. He would die painfully, as should every member of Team Rocket.  
Sean looked down at himself. When this was all over, he knew he was going to leave from civilization. He was going to head off, go to the place his human parents had left him, the place where all the Lucario collected. He would join them and stay there. He would live out a life without the violence and warring he had been encountering the past few days. He would forget everything, his days as a human, this war, and live life like a Lucario. He'd get a girlfriend, he'd just go on and see what the life of a Pokemon was truly like.  
Tsubaki cried out as she hit the bulkhead again. She had been rolled around the room enough to frazzle anyone. She was crying. Her Pokemon were being held from her, they sat on a desk where a guard sat, watching videos on his computer. She was sick of everything that was happening. Her world was collapsing around her. She had seen more and more people be killed, she had seen the intent of everyone in destroying her and her friends. She had followed these people not just because she knew she would be in trouble without them, but because she wanted to go on an adventure. But instead of an adventure, she had unknowingly entered a war zone where only three people and a Lucario who used to be a man were the army against the unknown numbers of Team Rocket goons.  
She fell to the floor again as the ship rocked and bumped into Sillindra. Sillindra was not crying, she was instead staring down. She had given up crying. She knew it was no good. Crying was only relieving herself of sadness at that moment, it did not erase that sadness that would continue through her life. She would live on with the memory of killing a person, of almost being killed until she grew old and withered. Tears could not erase that, and she could not cry every time the memory returned to her. Tears were worthless.  
Oak didn't bother worrying about the rocking ship. On his mind at the moment was his death. It was imminent. There was no escape from this. He envisioned kneeling on the top of the ship, hands behind his heads, cradling the back of it. He envisioned Gare coming to him, pistol cocked, and placing the cold metal against his head. He then heard the hammer smack against the slide, heard the loud boom that rang in the ears of everyone around.  
This thought replayed again and again in his head and the butterflies rose in his stomach.  
It seemed a miracle, almost an act of God, when a wave hit the front of the ship and sent the ship sixty degrees into the air. A Pokeball fell off of the desk as everyone was thrown against the back of the ship and the man's computer fell off the desk, crashing into pieces and sliding into the bars of the brig.  
The Pokeball though, was small enough to fit through the bars and it was grabbed by Sillindra.  
The other Pokeball's were being held onto by the guard who stared dumbly at Sillindra and the Pokeball grasped in her hands.  
"Rayquaza, blew the hell out of this ship!" Whether it was a psychic link between girl and Pokemon or just pure luck that she was the one to grab her Pokemon's Pokeball and not the Pokeball of one of Oak's or Tsubaki's Pokemon was up for debate. But Rayquaza appeared in the brig, the room being too tight for him. He smacked his tail into the brigs wall and brought it around into the bars of the brig.  
Sean watched this all happen and then watched as Rayquaza flew into the guard, knocking the Pokeballs from his hand. They rolled to Tsubaki and Oak. Rayquaza turned around to look at Sillindra. The body of the guard crumpled behind him, headless, blood spewing from his neck.  
"Zangoose! Free Sean!" Tsubaki said, opening her Pokeball . Zangoose fell to the floor, still tilted slightly and ran to the chair. He cut the restraints and the clasps that were sucking the power from him.  
Sean stood, rubbing his arms and he felt a feeling almost comparable to a high. His power returned to him, he felt amazing. His vision cleared, his muscles were not numb anymore. He looked back at his friends, all staring at him.  
"Let's get the hell off this ship." Sean said. He smirked and he and his friends ran to the top of the ship as Rayquaza was sent to send fireballs at the other ships in the armada.

"Sir, what the hell is that?" Asked a captain on one of the ships in the armada as a giant green dragon slipped out of a large hole in the lead ship.  
Gare responded on the lead ship. "Kill that thing! When the hell did they get a Pokemon like that?"  
Before the captain on the ship could respond, he was engulfed in a fireball that took the bridge of the ship and destroyed everything on it and in it. Including every member of the crew in it the room or near it.

"SHIT!" Gare slammed the radio into it's holder. Then, his cell phone rang.  
"Yes?" He answered.  
"You have failed."  
"I don't even understand how the hell they got out."  
"Nonetheless, you have failed. You better capture them somehow. Kill everyone but the Lucario though. Shoot him in the knees or somewhere nonlethal. Then capture him. It's the easiest way."  
"Sir, I wish to beat him half to death."  
"Then do so. But make sure he is alive enough to accept my proposal and become my personal Pokemon."  
"Yes sir. Enjoy the show."  
"As long as the ending is happy, I shall."  
Gare closed his cell phone and shoved it in his pants pocket. He grabbed the radio again. "ALL MEMBERS OF THE CREW, GRAB YOUR WEAPONS. SHOOT ON SITE. LEAVE THE LUCARIO FOR ME THOUGH. AND I KNOW YOUR LISTENING YOU LITTLE SHIT...

"...I'LL MEET YOU ON THE DECK!"  
Sean vaulted up the steps and grabbed the head of a man coming at him, slamming it into the bulkhead. The man was instantly knocked out. Tsubaki followed with Zangoose and Oak and Sillindra followed behind her.  
Sean was the first to enter the bridge. Zangoose ran in next, claws bared. Sean walked through slowly as Zangoose moved at seemingly the speed of light, tearing into the Team Rocket members, blood flying and heads rolling. Sean looked out and saw on the powerfully rocking deck a figure. The man he had promised himself would die.  
As he neared the bridges giant window that looked onto the deck, he jumped sideways, leg held out. His leg made contact with the glass and he flew onto the deck, landing on his feet, despite the fact the deck was slanted to the right.  
The rain pelted his head. The thunder rang in his ears.  
"So the Lucario and his friends escape?"  
"Gare."  
"Yes?"  
"Hell isn't the kind of place a pussy wants to go."  
Gare bared his teeth. "You like to poke rabid animals, don't you?"  
"I do enjoy the part where they bare their teeth, their eyes are full of artificial hate, and I can tell they have never brought death upon someone themselves, but sent his lackeys to do all of that."  
"Let's end your talking!" Gare ran at Sean, fist held up high.  
"You look like a little child wanting to get back at a bully."  
Gare then slid, and despite the fact the ship was tilting to one side he still stayed on course. He stood when he got in front of Sean and lashed out, a vicious chop to the neck. Sean ducked under and a high kick was then aimed for his chin. He bent back as far as he could as the kick went over him.  
He ended up falling on his ass and he was kicked in the face by Gare and sent through the air for a second, then back onto the deck.  
Gare walked to him and grabbed his left ear and lifted him up. "You listen here you piece of shit! YOU'RE NOTHING!"  
Sean looked up at him. "My feet are just dangling there."  
"Huh?"  
Sean may have been being held up and a foot off the ground, but he kicked high, right at Gare's chin. Gare bit down on his tongue and blood started to fall from his mouth in torrents. He let go of Sean and screamed.  
"DAMN YOU!" Gare staggered for a second. He then spit the tip of his tongue out of his mouth, along with tons of blood. "I'LL KILL YOU!"  
"Cat got your tongue?"  
"MOTHERFRUCKTHER!"  
Gare came at Sean. Sean jumped over his head, spinning. He used iron tail and as he flew over Gare's head he hit him between the eyes with it. Gare flew into the air.  
And fell back down, hitting his head on the deck so hard that his skull cracked. Blood flew everywhere.  
"Die." Sean stepped on his face, cracking his head into multiple pieces.

Professor Rowan stood on the head of his Gyrados, the reason for the giant waves. He was obscured from the view of the ships by the giant waves he had Gyrados create. If not for the giant waves he was creating, the storm would be a normal severe thunderstorm with some big waves, but not the tidal-like ones that were shaking up the armada that was slowly dwindling in numbers as the Rayquaza blew the ships to pieces. Half the armada had already sunk.  
Professor Rowan had watched his friend Oak get captured on a news feed in which Oak was declared an outlaw, a killer, and needed to be executed immediately. He had rode out and found that the storm was perfect cover for the battle about to take place. Little did he know, though, that one of Oak's friends had a Rayquaza.  
He had Gyrados head for the armada.

Sean looked down at his legs and noticed glass had been embedded in them. Gare, before his head had been crushed like a tomato, had shoved a handful of glass into his leg. Before Sean could scream, Tsubaki grabbed him and Sillindra yelled for Rayquaza to pick them up. Rayquaza landed on the deck and Tsubaki got Sean onto his back, then got up there herself, followed by Zangoose. Sillindra followed.  
As Oak ran for the dragon he heard a cry. He looked over to the side of the boat and laughed. "ROWAN!"  
"YEAH! MIND IF I RIDE WITH YOU?" He hopped onto the ship, called Gyrados back to his Pokeball and clasped hands with Oak.  
"Great to see you!"  
"Hop onboard! Were you and Gyrados the reasons for the waves?"  
"Yes! I heard you were in trouble so ran out here as fast as I could to help!"  
The two got onto the back of Rayquaza. "Head to my house." Rowan said. "I might have some things you would want."

Sinnoh's army marched. From scattered bases throughout the island they donned their helmets, their camouflage uniforms, their boots, their machine guns. They marched through forests, through valleys, through the remnants of once prospering towns now nothing more than rubble and ash, brought about by the riots and violence of the once peaceful people now reduced to the evil they despised.  
They walked with their Pokemon by their sides, ate with their fellow soldiers and their Pokemon, and some found themselves in tears at what was taking place. They held onto necklaces containing pictures of their children, of their wives, of their family. They looked down at the engraved metal of their dog tags. These people,once Pokemon trainers, once business men, once students were now nothing more than numbers.  
Through rain, through hail, through winds, through burning suns, through fog, through the night, through the day; they marched nonstop. Their eyes became weary, their muscles were sore. And those few precious hours of sleep they got were usually interrupted by the butterflies in their stomachs, by the cries of wild Pokemon.  
The place where the army was formed up was the largest field on Sinnoh. The grass waved in a slight breeze, the sun beat down on the field. The men and women with weapons ready ate, slept, set up camps, and waited here. Team Rocket's army would eventually come, and everyone's morale was raised by repeated chants of "FREE SINNOH!" "SINNOH ARMY IS THE ARMY OF THE WORLD!" and other such cries. The Sinnoh flag was waved and Pokemon battles enlivened the otherwise very dull, but patriotic, days.

"Please, take a seat." The masked man stood from behind his desk motioned for Daylan to sit in the red leather chair on the other side. Daylan took it thankfully and Mewtwo stood beside the chair.  
A butler walked into the room with two skinny stem glasses, each bubbling with a clear liquid. The butler placed one before both of the men and bowed before walking away.  
"Cheers." The masked man grabbed his glass by the stem and touched glasses with Daylan. They both took a sip of the champagne cheerfully.  
Daylan put his glass down first and steepled his fingers in his lap.  
"You did not bring me here for this frivolity I hope? You know I am a busy man."  
The masked man laughed. "I know quite well that stealing and killing is a very profitable and very time consuming job."  
"You of all people would Mr. Leader of Team Rocket." Daylan said mockingly.  
"Touche."  
"I am assuming you want the Darkrai DNA. And you have a price."  
"I like a man who cuts right to the chase, it makes all business transactions so much easier, and saves so much time and so much frivolous talking."  
"I would assume you would have had your butler bring champagne in every time I finished the previous one out. Get me drunk, buy the DNA for a small price."  
The masked man clapped his hands. "I'm working with a true professional."  
"You're not working with anyone...yet."  
"I don't want the Darkrai DNA, it's worthless to me without someone who can operate a cloning machine and structure a body for the creature. As such, I wish to hire your services."  
Daylan took a sip from his champagne. "Money?"  
"Five million up front, seven hundred an hour."  
Daylan nearly spit out his champagne.  
"That sound good?"  
"Get me the machinery. Get me the man power I need and I think we have a deal."  
The masked man sat back in his chair. He knew that Daylan was a wild card, he had no idea if he would turn around and use the Darkrai to destroy the Team Rocket base. But a loose cannon made things more interesting. And more than likely, as usually happened, everything would be alright and go exactly to plan.


	7. Chapter 7

**PART 7: Weary of Darkness The Light Shines Through (2): In Exchange For Freedom They Will Never Experience They Give Up Their Lives**  
Is there ever a point in time when the people think of their futures as they riot? Is there ever a point in time where the well-being of others, not themselves, is prominent in their minds? Is there ever a point in time when they stop watching the news, listening to the tabloids, taking sides on political issues and battling , and sit down and discuss a plan to make the world better? Do these people ever think ahead to a time when they can work together to build the world up, instead of continually tearing it down in order to build something of equal worth in it's place?  
The human race, as a species is a complete failure as many scientists would tell you who read science fiction every day and believe that aliens created them. And the sad thing is, these people would be violently assaulted outside of their homes or work places, their ideas would be shunned. And thus they prove their point that as a species, they were failures. A species should be built to help each other and work together to prosper in the harshness of the world, not add to the harshness.  
And as these riots took place in the streets, as the army mobilized in the field, as Team Rocket prepared their army in the hollow bunkers underneath the feet of the people with picket signs and screaming for freedom and peace the people raged at themselves now, instead of Team Rocket as they had been just a day before.  
And as the streets became clogged with protestors and enthusiasts a scientist watches down on them, lab coat fluttering out behind him in the breeze and a tear drops from his left eye and drops to the ground like rain. As it patters on the exposed pavement of a sidewalk he himself walks off the building and drops, playing a repeat of the scene of the tear. As the tear struck the ground and exploded in a splash, so too does his head.

Gary Oak held his cellphone in his hand, opened up. His grandfather's number had just been dialed, and he was hoping to speak to him on voice mail. But a woman's automated voice responded that the number he had dialed was out of service.  
He was fearful for his grandfather. He was wanted and his face was played on the news almost everyday, a large sum of money being paid for his head.  
Gary shut the phone and tilted the chair back a little and let his thoughts connect.

The images being displayed on the television were grainy, as if there was some sort of electrical interference. It showed crowds of people in the street, screaming, yelling, fighting. The police were out there in full force, Officer Jenny at the forefront, throwing gas into the crowd. But the crowd was violent, crazy and forced their way over the police line and started beating the authorities. As this was happening, off to the side of the scene the camera was picking up a man dropped to the ground and his head exploded in a gory mess. The bar that scrolled at the bottom of the screen declared this a nightmare, and the woman on the news that was doing the voice over said that she thought the end of the world could be coming.  
Rowan turned the television off and threw the remote onto the coffee table that his feet rested on. He sat back in the sofa in his living room, Oak sitting on the other cushion of the seat. Sean was asleep on the floor like a baby and Sillindra and Tsubaki sat in arm chairs, eyes watery as they watched the world turn into a place no one should live in.  
"Why do they do this?" Tsubaki asked. It was actually directed at anyone, it appeared to be more a question to herself, but Rowan answered.  
"This is what happens when a people are pushed to the edge. Team Rocket has killed their idols. Political killings, especially of this variety turn people into monsters. Suddenly, the political tensions between both parties escalate beyond when one party had a person in office, and politics becomes a cause for civil war. It's rather pathetic really. These people march in the streets, fighting over their ideals as Team Rocket sits back and uses the turmoil of the people to their advantage."  
"It's an ingenious tactic." Oak chipped in. "Turn the people into monsters, turn the people into raging fanatics. Make the religions combat each other, make the political parties combat each other, leave open the seats in government and watch everyone give their two cents. The radicals appear as leaders and the radicals tend toward violence more often than not. And Team Rocket hides behind this to send in their leaders, the radicals more than likely. And then these people get political power and Team Rocket owns Sinnoh. Easy."  
"Makes me glad I'm not a human anymore." Sean responded from the floor. The complete story had been told to Rowan as they traveled on Rayquaza to his home.  
"I just wondered this Mr..." Rowan asked, intent on finding out a last name.  
"I don't have a last name, my parents left me in a cave with a bunch of Lucario and a dog tag that said that my name was Sean and they loved me a lot, but they didn't want me to be in the pain they were going through. Call me Sean, though if you started calling me Lucario I would accept that as well. I feel rather happy not being a human anymore."  
"Well, let's say your name is Sean Lucario." Tsubaki looked back at Sean and smiled.  
Sillindra was smiling to. "Or maybe we should just call him Lucario. If I could be disassociated with these people I would take that chance."  
Lucario yawned and sat up. He grabbed his knees close and looked at Rowan. "You were wondering something Rowan?"  
"Yes." He stroked the stubble on his chin for a moment. "I was wondering what your intentions were with this group."  
"What do you mean?" Lucario tilted his head to the side, perplexed.  
"A couple things about your story stand out to me. Why are you following these people? Why are you fighting Team Rocket when you could easily walk away and go find your Lucario family and live the rest of your life away from everything that happens?"  
"Because you need my help. I don't think you could stand up to Team Rocket by yourself. They tried to kill me, Sillindra, Oak."  
"But you were just collateral, they didn't have anything against you." Everybody was staring at Lucario with wide eyes. They had no idea if maybe this Lucario was set into the group. Maybe it was all a conspiracy.  
"Sillindra had given me a home for six months, had given me a roof over my head! She had bought both of me food. She has done more for me than any human I've ever met."  
"What stake do you have in this war? People don't protect each other for petty reasons like that. She was thinking of the scientific implications of discovering why you turned into a Lucario and you knew it. She was after money, she knew it would pay tenfold for your costs in the end."  
"That's not true!" Sillindra yelped.  
"Rowan..." Oak grabbed him by the shoulder.  
Lucario stood, fire in his eyes. "You just come along and save us, we don't even stay in your house a night and you are already trying to start problems. Are you sure you yourself aren't an agent of Team Rocket since that's basically what you are implying? If you people believe that I'm a nuisance, that I'm a loose cannon, that you can't trust me, than you can thank me for saving your asses multiple times when we meet in hell. The only difference when we meet is the fact that I'll have lived out my life after this happened. All of you will have been in hell since I left and Team Rocket killed you all."  
Tsubaki ran up to Lucario and grabbed him. "Don't go, we don't believe that." She looked at everyone, staring at her. "At least, I don't. You saved us a bunch of times and beat those two bad Team Rocket guys." She tried to avoid the word "kill".  
Lucario looked at everyone else. "Then follow me and we can go destroy Team Rocket. I don't need people on my side who are too busy second-guessing me to care about everything that happens." He looked down at his leg. The glass had been removed an hour before the conversation started.  
"Rowan, what the hell are you trying to do?" Oak stood, glaring at his companion in science.  
"I'm only trying to protect you. Everyone's stakes in this war seem worthy, except for that Lucario's. He could be the death of you if you don't watch your back. In this war you can't trust anyone." Rowan stood as well and got into Oak's face.  
"Then how do we know we can trust you Rowan?" Tsubaki asked.  
"I saved you back there, I helped you get out of that tight spot, I helped destroy the armada."  
"Collateral damage." Sillindra looked up from her chair and had a menacing smile on her face.  
"So we can't trust Rowan." Tsuabki said, still holding onto Lucario's arm.  
"Precisely." Lucario muttered. He shook Tsubaki off his arm and in one giant leap landed twenty feet away, right in between Oak and Rowan.  
"I've got a family!" Rowan was on his knees now. "They threatened to kill my wife and daughter if I didn't follow their precise instructions."  
"What was tearing us apart going to accomplish?" Lucario asked menacingly.  
"Assassins were going to take up positions all over and pick you off one by one. You would be captured and taken to the man in charge of Team Rocket..."  
"Who leads Team Rocket? What's his name?" Lucario grabbed him by his shirt and lifted him off the ground. "WHO'S BEEN PULLING THE FUCKING STRINGS!"  
Suddenly, in a split second, the window exploded in a shower of glass and Rowan's head exploded all over Lucario.  
The girls looked away and screeched. Oak pulled the pistol from his trousers. Lucario threw the body to the side and licked the blood from his lips. His whole face was red.  
And then a little girl walked into the house. She saw her dead father, and ran to him, slipping in his blood and falling on her ass.  
Lucario walked out. "Sorry kid. You don't want to join him, I'd advise staying low."  
The little girl turned her tear streaked face to the Lucario. "THEY KILLED MY MOTHER!" She ran at the Lucario and punching his leg where bandages had been applied from the glass. He fell to the ground and grunted. "YOU'RE ONE OF THEM! I SWEAR TO GOD I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"  
Lucario stood. Tsubaki was crying, Sillindra just watched on. Oak was checking his pistol.  
"Hate me kid." He ruffled her hair. "When you're old enough and feel ready, leave a message in this exact place. Tell me a place to meet you and we'll settle it. How old are you kid?"  
"Twelve."  
"I'll see you soon enough. I'm sorry kid. I'm sorry you were brought into a world like this." Lucario turned around and walked to the door.  
"You promise to meet me?" The kid asked.  
Lucario looked over his shoulder. "Yes." He then grabbed the door handle.  
"What are you doing?" Oak asked. "You want to kill us all?"  
"I heard a train stopping at the station. I'll create an aura shield that will get us over there safely. Hop on board, cover my ass because by then I'll more than likely be passed out. That's gonna suck a lot of power from me."  
And that's what happened. As they hid in the shield, as bullets bounced off it, Sillindra looked at Lucario, disgusted. "You basically sealed the death of that little girl."  
"I've decided I more than likely won't be alive enough to meet her when she feels ready."  
They got on the train platform and ran onto the train. Lucario made the shield disappear and lay against the back of the car they had gotten on to.  
Sillindra and Tsubaki threw out their Pokemon and looked back at Lucario.  
Tsubaki thought his intentions were righteous and that he was the person he said he was.  
But Sillindra was growing doubts. And how he dealt with Rowan's kid just helped seal the deal. Maybe there was something more to this Lucario who used to be a man.  
Or maybe there wasn't and his intentions were pure. But at the moment, they needed to focus on the problem at hand. The train started to move and they all knew the assassins would not quit their job until Sillindra, Tsubaki, and Oak were dead, Lucario was captured; or the assassins themselves were killed.

"They fell for Rowan like idiots. He was about to rat us out anyway. Do as I instructed and you will be handsomely rewarded." The masked man hung up his phone and looked across his desk at Daylan.  
"You usually have problems like that?" He asked.  
"The problem will be eradicated soon enough."


	8. Chapter 8

**PART 8:Weary Of The Darkness The Light Shines Though (3): Human Fallacies Pervert The Minds Of Heroes**  
Daylan stood before the large tube structure sitting in the high tech laboratory in Team Rocket headquarters. Butterflies fluttered in his stomach as he looked at the tube, containing a bluish liquid with half a spine floating in it, four cables holding onto it. Yesterday there had been nothing in the tube but the bluish liquid and the cloned Darkrai DNA. And now, a day later, developments were taking place. It was a rather quick development time Daylan thought, looking over at Mewtwo, who sat against the wall, staring at the ceiling. Mewtwo had taken three months to develop in the tube. Perhaps the Darkrai DNA was stronger, more potent. The bluish liquid that the spine was suspended in was able to take the DNA. The liquid could then change it's molecular makeup and turn into whatever the DNA wished. It was a rather slow process, but to think that it was so easy to create a being.  
If the public caught wind of these processes there would more than likely be an uproar from some group declaring it was incorrect for humans to create beings. But the only God for Daylan was science. And he clung to her like a baby to the breast of her mother.  
He turned around and looked at the rows of consoles against the walls and in the center of the concrete bunker twenty stories under the ground. Scientists in lab coats and some in safety goggles were staring at the computer screens, some were playing with chemical compounds, and others still had their legs up on their computers and lay back with a paperback in hand.  
Science. An ever changing religion that did not require a commitment.

The train car was quiet. As the train headed deeper and deeper into the darkness of Sinnoh's night the rocking became worse and worse. The assassins were somewhere, they could be on top, under, to the sides. They were not hired to be up close and in your face killers. They were hired to make it quick.  
As Lucario sat back and tried to take a breather he watched the ever changing landscape outside. First it was fields, then forest, now they were crossing a river. He looked over at his companions. He had given up calling Oak and Sillindra friends. Friends didn't have suspicions about their other friend's allegiances. Tsubaki was the only one who thought Lucario's motives were all right. And Lucario was fine with that.  
Rayquaza had been flying alongside the train. Zangoose and Gengar had taken up positions up top. It appeared that everything was secure. Maybe the assassins had not followed them onto the train. Maybe they didn't have enough time to pack up their snipers and hop aboard.  
Oak stood in front of the left door of the car, staring out at the stars and the landscape. Sillindra slept in the corner of the car opposite Lucario. Tsubaki sat back next to Lucario. She looked at him.  
"It's been rough lately. Everyone is on edge."  
Lucario looked at her. "You don't seem to be too on edge."  
She smiled. "I haven't had quite as traumatic a time as Sillindra. And Oak trusts you. I know he does. He even stood up for you in Rowan's house. We can stay united, we just need to establish better trust I guess."  
Lucario lay down on the floor of the car and stared at the ceiling. "Sillindra doesn't like me or my style. Despite the fact she says it wasn't just the money that kept me in the house, she is telling a half lie. She wanted to uncover a huge scientific discovery, she wanted to be famous and make money. Thing is, Team Rocket's advances into politics and attacks against all of Sinnoh would have taken her fame from her in two seconds. She wouldn't have made any money at all because everyone would be too busy rioting and killing each other to care about some guy who turned into a Lucario. Some would probably be envious of my situation. People watching the news from the TV would probably wish they could cast their human chains away and become a Pokemon of some sort, free to live their lives without caring about the human's and their situations and stupidities."  
Tsubaki looked at Sillindra. "I think it will take some time, but she will grow to like having you along. You're fun to talk to. I understand what you do. I understand why you did that to that girl, you knew she would want revenge, you might as well play into it. You're a good person at heart, you just show it in a particularly peculiar way. "  
"I hate everything about this situation. I hate that we are reduced to this. I hate the fact you got stuck in the situation. I hate the fact Sillindra got stuck in this situation. I still hate the fact Oak got us into this."  
"But..."  
"He should have been more careful!" Lucario said it without showing any anger. "He should have not worried about science and being rich from watching a man turn into a Lucario. He should have cared more about the safety of everyone involved. He knew he was being chased by Rocket. He's a reckless old bastard."  
Tsubaki did not know how to respond. She just lay against the back of the train car and let the gentle rocking of the train rock her to sleep.  
"Hey Oak?" Lucario asked when Tsubaki was asleep.  
"Yeah?" He asked, walking over from the position he had been fixed at for the past hour and a half.  
"Go to sleep. You'll need it."  
"Whose gonna keep a watch?"  
"The other Pokemon."  
Oak sat down. "If this is the death of us..."  
"Everyone will blame you for dragging us into this damn mess."  
Oak lay back and blew out a long breath. "Alright then."

Everyone woke up with to the sound of helicopter rotors and spotlights playing on them. Rayquaza tried to attack but machine guns tore into it. Oak grabbed his measly pistol and aimed it at the helicopter on the left side. The one on the right descended and a man jumped into the train car from it. He held a katana. He was clad in all black with a bulletproof vest and two pistols on either side of his waist.  
Lucario stood and heard a thud. Rayquaza had fallen on top of the train. Zangoose suddenly showed up behind the assassin. But before the Pokemon could attack the man turned around and kicked out, sending the Pokemon through the air and to the back of the car, into Sillindra. She fell with Zangoose in her hands. A sharp snap had been heard when Zangoose impacted Sillindra. Lucario assumed one or two of her ribs had been broken.  
"ZANGOOSE!" Tsubaki yelled as the assassin ran at her, katana twirling to his side.  
Before it could cleave into her head, Lucario showed up and parried the attack with the spike on his left hand.  
But before the fight could intensify there was a shrill screech as a rocket escaped one of the helicopters and blew the front of the train away. The whole train jumped and started to tilt to one side, threatening to fall over.  
"Son of a bitch!" Lucario yelped, trying to keep his balance as the assassin tried to cut him up. Lucario dodged under the attack and then another missile went off, blowing the back of the train apart and off the track.  
The middle part of the train, the part Lucario and company were fighting on, fell off the track and they all fell to the side as it slid down the grass and stopped when it hit a tree. Everyone in the fallen train car was beaten pretty bad by the slide. Except for the assassin.  
A rope fell into the left window, which was now the ceiling of the train car on it's right side. Assassins slid down it and grabbed the girls, then Oak, and then Lucario.

"It's over sir. The targets have been captured."

One of the two helicopters hovered over their heads as they were escorted to the other helicopter. Sillindra, Tsubaki, Lucario, and Oak were handcuffed. Zangoose was left in the train car, dead. As was Rayquaza.  
But Tsubaki knew Gengar was around somewhere. He couldn't have been killed in by the missiles that had destroyed the front and back of the train. He had to be alive.  
But before she could ponder this any further she watched as Oak was pushed ahead of them and thrown to his knees. The four assassins then pointed machine guns at him.  
"NO!" Tsubaki cried.  
A tear rolled down Oak's cheek.  
And then the machine guns did their job and tore Oak into pieces of meat.

"It is done. Send the army to the fields. The minor nuisances are done for. Declare war. Sinnoh is ours today Team Rocket." The man in the white mask sat back in his leather chair and enjoyed the cries of joy of Team Rocket members all throughout Sinnoh.  
Despite the fact it had just begun, it was over. Sinnoh had no chance. It was theirs.

Lucario was still too weak to use any sort of aura attack. He looked up at the sky and noticed a green blur heading toward the helicopter.

The man in the white mask watched the live feed from his helicopters and saw the green blur and nearly spit out his champagne.

Rayquaza ran into the helicopter full force and sent it through the air like a toy. Blood was pouring from it's wounds and it was breathing hard. It's eyes were glazing over, as if it was almost dead.  
"NO!" Sillindra cried as Rayquaza looked down at her, then turned back to the helicopter and used the last of it's strength to hurl the biggest fireball it had ever shot at the helicopter. It fell to the ground, dead, as the fireball hit the helicopter and obliterated it.

"Son of a bitch!" The man in the white mask stood and threw his glass at the television screen which showed the fireball one second, and then a black screen the next. He punched the intercom and yelled. "IT'S NOT OVER!"  
And the cries of joy and the parties and the beers being passed around all stopped.

Gengar appeared behind the assassins as they stared in awe at the falling dragon. Rayquaza fell to the ground with a wet slapping sound.  
Sillindra was on her knees crying.  
And as the assassins turned around to face the Gengar, sticking it's tongue out mockingly, Zangoose somersaulted over the body of Rayqauza and used it's claws to snap the handcuffs off of Lucario, Sillindra, and Tsubaki.  
One of the assassins turned just in time to get a face full of Lucario foot. The man fell to the ground and Lucario fell on top of him and smashed his head into the ground repeatedly until his brain was so shook up he died.  
One of the assassins looked down at his neck only to find the claws of Zangoose through it. Blood spurted from the wound and he tried to scream but only gurgled blood.  
Lucario grabbed the machine gun from the hand of one of the assassins and shoved the barrel through his eye, into his brain. The man fell dead, machine gun embedded in his skull.  
And then, there was only one, the one with the katana. And he held it out to his side and stared at the Lucario. The Lucario was his first problem. The girls would come next.

The masked man screamed as he watched his assassins be taken out so easily. Only one was left but there was little hope.  
"FUCK!" The masked man punched the television displaying the battle between the leader of the assassins and the Lucario. There was a short electric shock, but the man in the mask felt no pain. His suit absorbed the shock.  
His butler stood in the doorway to his office and watched all of this transpire with a consistently straight face.

Lucario moved to the side as the assassin thrusted his sword toward Lucario's stomach.  
And then, Lucario felt pain. Total pain. His chest had been cut, shallowly, but blood still frothed from the wound.  
"NO!" Tsubaki cried as she pulled the machine gun from the eye socket of the dead assassin.

Daylan had hacked into the live camera feed and watched from the camera in the helicopter a scene almost hilarious. Team Rocket was so powerful it was being defeated by two girls and a Lucario.  
"I know the boss is pissed. He thought it was over." He said to the scientists crowding around the computer playing the feed. "But it's only just begun."

Lucario fell to the ground and watched as Tsubaki shot the whole clip into the assassin like a true professional. She then fell to her knees and looked back at Lucario.  
"She's different from the rest of us. Not in a bad way though." Lucario muttered as the body of the assassin fell on top of him.

The sun was beginning to peek over the horizon when Lucario awoke. And as he stood, he noticed he had been taken away from the scene of the violence. He noticed Tsubaki on the shore of the beach that they were apparently at. He had been laying in grass in front of the sand. He walked over to Tsubaki and looked out at the ocean with her.  
"Good morning." She said.  
"Where are we?" He asked.  
"Sillindra stole Oak's Pokemon and knocked me out. She must have grabbed us and had Dragonite take us here."  
"And where did she go?"  
"If I told you I don't think she works for Rocket but has an agenda of her own would you believe me?"  
Lucario looked at the sun for a moment. "Come on. Let's head toward a city. We'll see her again. I have a feeling we will."  
Tsubaki followed him off the beach.

-  
TO: Gary Oak  
FROM: Sillindra  
SUBJECT: Your Grandfather  
_I'm so sorry Gary.  
I have run from Team Rocket and I am staying at the Pokemon Sciences Research Lab. I have learned much in the past couple days and as such wish to tell the scientific community my discoveries.  
I'm sorry to everyone involved. And if you see a girl named Tsubaki and a Lucario please tell them I'm sorry but I need to escape and break away from them. I don't ever want to see them again._

Sillindra looked up from the computer. She hit send and tears threatened to well in her eyes. The pain from her broken ribs had left her now, but it was the emotions that made her cry as she did.  
"I'm sorry Tsubaki, Sean. But I must recreate the Godstone." She pulled a shard of the stone from her pocket. She had taken it on the island before passing out, when the torpedo had destroyed the Godstone shrine, a small piece had slid close to her.  
She looked at it.  
Science was a religion all scientists said, that had no commitment.  
That's because there wasn't a commitment you had to accept from anyone else when you became a scientist. It was a commitment you yourself created.


	9. Chapter 9

**Book 2: In Our Darkest Hour  
****Part Nine: A New Dawn, New Players Enter  
Day 1 Of The Prewar: The Destruction Of The Pokeball Factory  
**Lucario and Tsubaki walked off the beach and into the forest behind them. Lucario was feelingpretty bad, the violence of the past few days had torn him up and what he really wanted was a rest. Tsubaki felt the same way, tired, morale at an all time low. The past few days had scarred the two. And they knew it was only the beginning, only the first step into hell. As long as Team Rocket stood, there would be continued violence and continued attacks.  
And as Pokemon yelped out, fluttered about, and went on with their daily lives, disregarding the intruders invading their home, Lucario realized that he could give up, be just like them. Live a life where he disregarded the humans in his turf. But when he looked over at Tsubaki, the girl who had been thrust into this because she had the common decency to help. And because she was good, she was now wanted dead.  
And Lucario knew he couldn't leave her alone. He couldn't let her die. She was the purest thing in the world, she helped save Oak. She was the light in the darkness. Despite the fact there was something off about her, something that Lucario just felt on his inside she wasn't telling him, she was the only person he could trust and the only person he wanted to protect. To hell with the rest of the humans. They were worthless specks on an otherwise tarnished towel.  
"I have something to tell you before we continue." Tsubaki had been staring at the ground when she said this. She looked up at Lucario with tears streaming down her cheeks. She was breaking down, and Lucario could see it easily enough. He grabbed her and set her on the ground.  
"What?" Lucario said, as he watched her lower lip tremble, as if she was trying to make the words form, but couldn't.  
"I've killed before." She finally got out. "I...I'm used to..." Her eyes fell to the ground again and she spit the next word out like it was a curse "killing. I killed my father, I killed ten people other than him. I was an orphan when my mom killed herself." She cried harder now and Lucario grabbed her.  
"Slow down." Lucario said. "Don't cry. Tell me."  
"It was during the civil war in on Ocean Island. I was born there. I lived there. When I was ten, my parents were fighting, my mom was trying to tell my dad not to go...And he hit her with the butt of the gun. I was crying, she was crying. He then...stomped on her chest and I heard a crack. And before he could scream at her or hurt her anymore I had a knife in my hand and I shoved it through his chest."  
Lucario still held onto her as her sobs got worse.  
"And then the village I lived in was attacked and I grabbed Dad's gun. I ran out there and helped defend the village. I killed ten people. I bathed in their blood. And then shortly after my mother killed herself. She was depressed because I had killed my bastard of a father, the man who would hurt her and probably would have killed her just because she was trying to protect him."  
Lucario stood. "I'm very sorry." He looked at the ground, tears threatening to explode from his eyes as he thought of who his parents could be and Tsubaki's story. He then shook them away and walked to the left. "I'm going to get some water. Please stay there. I know you may also need a moment to yourself."  
And so Tsubaki sat under a large oak tree, eyes full of tears. And Lucario walked toward a river, eyes also full of tears.  
He looked at his face in the river, the image wavering. He could only trust her.  
She had told him her secret, she trusted him. And now he knew he could completely trust her. He knew she was the person he needed to bodyguard. He knew if he had to he would die to protect her, would allow her to capture him and use him how she wished.  
He knew now that his life was changed again and that he was now going to follow her. And he knew if he did, Team Rocket would be in the way, waiting for the challenge that would imminently be proposed by Lucario. And he knew that if he protected her, the last pure human on the planet, he would defeat Team Rocket.  
He walked back and saw that she was standing, a smile on her face and ready to go. He motioned for her to go ahead and he followed.

"I was trying to keep you as last resorts."  
"And we still are." One of the people in the dark room said.  
"Do you think you can dispose of those who need disposing of?"  
"We will find the one woman easily enough. The girl and Lucario will be very easy to find and kill."  
"Good. If the opportunity presents itself I would enjoy the chance to meet this Lucario. But more than likely, we will just have to kill him."  
"Yes sir."  
"The Acolytes of Darkness better not let me down."  
"We won't sir."

The forest subsided and opened to a large factory. Forklifts and other heavy machinery lay about, as well as a train stopped alongside the factory, a series of trucks, and a cargo plane. It was all surrounded by a metal fence with barbed wire standing atop it, circling menacingly, glinting in the sunlight.  
And the moment Tsubaki and Lucario saw the compound, they knew that it would be the killing floor for the night. Team Rocket members stood around, cigarettes trailing smoke, machine guns slung over shoulders. And in the large fields in between the various sections of the factory stood squads of Rocket members, drilling and aiming their rifles at targets placed against the metal walls of the buildings.  
The facility had been the Pokeball factory. It still was, only it was not run by the government and the Pokemon branch of the government. It was now run by Team Rocket, more than likely as a choke point in case they needed to use it as leverage against the government or anyone else. Stop the flow of Pokeballs, stop Pokemon getting caught, and destroy the prime source of income for the government in Sinnoh.  
And then the thought came to Lucario. Why would the facility still be running if the government were not helping this along? Why wouldn't the government attack Team Rocket for taking over a government run facility like this?  
The answer was easy enough. The people taking positions in the government were associated with Rocket.  
"We're attacking this place tonight." Lucario told Tsubaki, who watched as the squads marched and the commander yelled out cadence.  
"There are a lot of people." She replied.  
"That's never stopped us." Lucario smiled.  
And so they sat in the forest until darkness.

Daylan sat back and stared at his Darkrai, floating in the tank. It's head was complete now, a spinal cord dangling from it. The projected finish date was two weeks. And he had never been so excited.  
And so he sat there, staring at the tube like a crazy man. Which he was, he admitted to himself. But generally, genius scientists were crazy.

It was during a small dinner of berries and water that Lucario said what he wanted to tell Tsubaki all day.  
"Capture me." He said.  
"What?" Tsubaki replied, looking at him like she really had not caught what he had just said.  
"Capture me." Lucario replied.  
Tsubaki looked at him some more. "You want me to capture you?" She asked, like she suspected something behind his motives. "Why?"  
"Because I was given this body for a reason. I wasn't just handed this power." He looked down at his hands. "I know I'm going to be a Lucario for the rest of eternity, but I was given a job along with this body. Not an everlasting job, just a job to until I retired. I really didn't recognize this fact until I was sitting in front of the river this morning. Then something rushed to my head."  
"What?" Tsubaki asked, throwing a berry in her mouth.  
"When I touched the Godstone when I was young it gave me a vision, a vision I had forgotten until this morning. It was a vision of a girl. She was just a silhouette though, a figure made of light and lost in darkness. Dark figures surrounded her and I saw a Lucario, made of light, that walked beside her. And then it became clear to me that my mission is to protect you. Despite your past, despite the fact that you have blood on your hands, you are the purest thing in the world. I need to protect you, because in the end, you are going to decide what happens, not me. We need to shift positions. I need to quit leading and you need to lead. I need to be your soldier, I need to be your Pokemon. I need to join Zangoose and Gengar."  
She looked at Lucario and tears streamed down her cheeks. "When I killed my father, the blood pooled into a form that resembles a Lucario, and then when I killed those ten men I saw a Lucario in the distance, watching. Like a guardian."  
"And now, I have appeared in the forefront."  
Tsubaki took a Pokeball from off her belt and looked at Lucario.  
"I can't believe I'm going to do this. Are you sure you can't protect me without being in one of my Pokeballs?"  
Lucario shook his head. "This is how it is supposed to be."  
The Pokeball was opened, Lucario was sucked in, and it closed, the front white button turning yellow, declaring that the capture was a success.  
Tsubaki looked at it for a moment. She realized that she didn't want it to be this way. She threw the Pokeball out and released him. Lucario stood and looked at her.  
"I'm completely at your disposal now. You're the boss."

Sillindra held the Godstone in her hand and felt a rush of air and was suddenly standing in a dark room. And she then saw a girl and a Lucario, made completely out of light. They cast white shadows on the ground, but they were connected. As were the lights of the figures of a Zangoose and a Gengar.  
She snapped out of the vision and watched the Godstone explode in her hands. It was gone. It's mission was complete.

Standing in a wooden tower at the top of a mountain looking out at Rock Island, a monk smiled. "The light has been united. And only that light can overtake the darkness. The Monks of a Forgotten God have completed their mission." He looked down at the twelve monks, heads bald, wearing orange suits. They each held a knife in hand, aimed at their bellies.  
"Let us go meet this forgotten God and reap our rewards in heaven."  
Five minutes later, intestines piled on the ground, trailing from the slit stomachs of thirteen monks, all dead and smiling.

"GO!" Tsubaki yelled. Lucario used his arm horns to slice the fence to pieces, creating an opening big enough for the two. He then followed her as she ran toward the door to the manufacturing area.  
"Go inside. Kill them all. I'll have Gengar and Zangoose attack the guards."  
Lucario nodded and had her open the door for him. He walked in. It was dark, the conveyor belts were not running. Parts of Pokeballs laid about. He saw four guards standing around and ten asleep on cots in the corner of the room.  
Lucario sent an Aura Sphere at the sleeping men and killed them all. The guards turned around fast, and started shooting. Lucario ran for it and slid under one of the guards, knocking him to the ground. He then stepped on the man's head and ran to the next guard.  
A similar scene played out for the last three. And then Lucario left the building.

A half an hour later, the hit and run tactics were ended. Lucario, Gengar, and Zangoose had killed every guard.  
And watching from atop one of the buildings with two men in Kevlar, wearing night vision goggles and completely black body suits was a man in regular Team Rocket garb.  
"The place is going to self-destruct. Get some good pictures of the two of them now, and then running from the explosion. We'll broadcast them and watch the public reaction. They'll explode. Any politicians against us will back us in our want to kill these people."  
"Yes sir." The man answered and walked away as his two ninjas started snapping pictures, then jumped to the ground and started running as the buildings exploded one after the other. They got pictures as the Lucario and the girl ran for it. She had her other two Pokemon return right as the first building exploded.  
"They show their faces in public, they are dead." The man in the white mask said over the radio as he watched what was transpiring from the TV's in his room showing live feeds of what was taking place from the small cameras on the men's masks.  
**  
Day 2 Of The Prewar: The Dark Acolytes Discovered  
**Archer cut his pack of cards over and over again, a kind of calming ceremony. He looked out from the deck of his luxury mansion. He enjoyed being an Acolyte. The riches, the spoils. Though he was a bit materialistic, it didn't bother him. The job was fun. And he enjoyed sitting on his deck, looking at the forest and town beneath him. His daily paper was brought to him by his servant. He thanked the servant as the front page showed a picture of an explosion, with a Lucario and a girl clearly discernible.  
He smiled to himself.

Lucario and Tsubaki smiled to themselves. The idiot was apparently not smart enough to realize that explosions tend to light up a place, and whether wearing white or black, you were still exposed. So they followed him to his mansion. The two ninja-like men had gotten away though. But they would be disposed of.  
"I like being your Pokemon." Lucario said.  
"There is not much difference."  
"Trust me, for the Pokemon, our bond tightens. Your word is my command."  
"Should we attack now?" She asked.  
"You're the boss. I'd say why the hell not, but if you have a different opinion..."  
"No, I like your idea. Why the hell not? Let's go."  
And thus, they headed for the giant mansion together, Pokemon and master.


	10. Chapter 10

**Part 10: Acolytes of Darkness (1): Archer  
Day 2 of The Prewar: The Dark Acolytes Discovered**  
He stood in front of the glass fish tank, five guards before him, each with a glass of wine in hand. They all wore camouflage pants and bulletproof vests over green T-shirts. Pistols were holstered at their hips. Their heads had been buzzed, only stubble remained of their hair. They had on brown boots that had been cleaned before they entered the mansion so as to not dirty the floor.  
Archer smirked. He was somewhat effeminate, his hair colored turquoise, his eyes slanting slightly. He wore a black shirt beneath a V-neck white Team Rocket shirt that cut off above his belly button. Otherwise, he wore regular white dress pants and dress shoes. He had just come from Johto to live here in Sinnoh and live out the short war that was about to ensue. Once Sinnoh had been taken, Johto would be next. And he would be the new president of Johto for the man in the white mask, his new idol. Giovanni had been a fool and had the potential to the turn the organization into what it was now. But he never took it because he was weak. And the weak had to be destroyed. And he was, he was now resting in hell with the rest of Team Rocket's old commanders.  
"Sir, the Sinnoh marines have set up a perimeter and have the whole place under surveillance." One of the marines saluted after saying this.  
"Good. Those two are still at large. Not for long though. I was just watching the news and there are so many riots, so many rebel militias after them. Nobody is happy with them, they want them dead. The other woman, the one with the Rayquaza is our only problem at this point. I don't think that the Lucario and the woman could find me, nor would they have the time or strength to attack here."  
"Yes sir. The woman you refer to is being looked up on the computers. We have found a decent enough picture of her from the night the train crashed and everything went to hell. Our facial recognition software should be able to figure out who she is."  
"Wonderful. And when we learn more about her, we will strike like the snake."

Sillindra stood in her office in the Pokemon Research Headquarters. To her side stood a circle of wax and plastic, sitting on a desk. And next to it stood more pieces of wax and plastic, along with some beauty products and colored contacts.  
She looked at herself in the small mirror on her desk. Those days when she had been tagging along with Lucario and Tsubaki she had been a different person. Her chin had been much more pronounced, her eyes had been green instead of blue, her eyebrows had been thicker. Her hair had also been highlighted red. Now, she looked like a different woman. The moment she had left the two on the beach she had begun her transformation to the person she was born as. Her real name was Sillindra, though the face that most people associated with that name was a lie.  
Team Rocket was going to run facial recognition software on her because they would never find her if they didn't. They knew she held a position at some place of work, she wasn't solely a Pokemon trainer or adventurer. And that had to mean she was on public record with some sort of degree or on her place of work's website.  
She sat down at her computer, typing up a storm. The Godstone had disappeared and her boss wanted an explanation. And she really didn't have a decent one. Could she just say that it disappeared in a puff of flame and she had a vision? No, because she was a scientist and that kind of thing was impossible. Science was about the possible, not the impossible. It was about attaining the impossible through the possible. And spontaneous combustion followed by a vision that summed up why it had combusted did not really explain the situation well.  
She sipped her coffee and typed up the best excuse she could. It wasn't very good.

Daylan held a hotdog in one hand and a soda in the other. He walked through the marble front room of Sinnoh Museum and downed the hot dog in about ten seconds before walking through a door and into a gift shop in the museum, marble columns reaching to the ceiling and people scurrying about, toys, books, and other cheap tourist crap in hand. He passed through, drink still in hand, paying no heed to the people yelling at him that drinks were not allowed in the museum.  
He entered a hallway containing famous paintings at intervals. A museum guard grabbed him in a bear hug from behind and grabbed the soda from him. He then took a pair of handcuffs from his belt and tried to restrain the struggling Daylan.  
Before the cuffs could be administered though, Mewtwo appeared behind the man and snapped his neck, in front of dozens of tourists. Children screamed, parents screamed, and the scene turned from careful contemplation of the beautiful art, to screaming and general chaos as they ran away from the killers.  
Daylan picked his soda up from the ground and the dead body of the guard. He drank a bit of it and smiled. He then walked forward, deeper into the museum, camera's following his every move.

There were two guards at the front gate to the mansion, each within arms reach of an alarm. Past that were two guards in front of the front door and one guard at the bottom of the steps that led to it. There were then three guards that walked around the mansion, passing between the gate and door every three minutes.  
Cameras everywhere. More than likely had infrared sensors set up. The mansion was very open at the top providing enough of a view that lookouts could see the whole area.  
It was very well protected.  
"But not well enough." Lucario said, smiling as he knelt beside Tsubaki having scouted the area. Zangoose stood beside him, and Gengar was off getting ready for the signal to go off and the beautiful mansion to turn into a great bloodbath.

"Welcome to Kanto sir!" Yelled the man in black Team Rocket garb as he pulled a pistol from the back of his pants and placed it in the palm of the man in the white mask.  
"Thank you." The man in the white mask shot the man in the face, point blank. The Rocket member fell to the ground with a thud, his face caved in. The pilot of the plane grabbed the body and hauled it inside.  
On the runway were a hundred Team Rocket members. They stood at attention as the man in the white mask made his first appearance outside of Sinnoh.  
"How many of you enjoyed the rule of Giovanni?" About a quarter of the people raised their hands. They were promptly killed by twelve men patrolling around the group.  
"A bad answer. He was an incompetent and worthless leader. You will learn to deal with me. I am your new leader and I want Team Rocket of Kanto to know this! I am here to herald in the new age! And you are not here to complain but to become part of that history! Now then, I want to know who your leaders are."  
Four people walked to the front of the group.  
"Come with me. It is time to prepare Kanto for me."  
"Two of us are from Johto sir."  
The man in the white mask smiled beneath his mask. "All the better."

The marines stood in front of the gate, shuffling their feet and wondering how they could liven up as tedious a job as guarding a gate. They played rock-paper-scissors but that created only a minute of excitement. They then tried target practice, aiming for a circle they had chalked on a tree about fifty feet away. It provided entertainment for about an hour. So they were rather bored and their eyes drooped, sleep wanting to invade their conscious but they attempted to push it away.  
And as they sat against the wall, kicking the wall that surrounded the mansion with their heels, they then saw a figure run at them, a little figure. It came at them fast and before they could raise their weapons it had decapitated one and cut the hands off the other.  
The surviving guard stared at his stumps, sputtering blood grotesquely.  
Zangoose slid to the wall and motioned for Tsubaki and Lucario to come forward.

The guard in front of the step was surprised when a Pokeball rolled into his feet. It was a regular old Pokeball, a bit of mud collected on it's surface. He motioned for the guards at the front door to check it out. They took the stairs two at a time and bent down to look at it.  
They saw a brilliant light that blinded them. But before they could complain about that, their whole bodies were torn to pieces by the force of an explosion.  
Lucario smiled from behind the gate as he watched the limbs of the guards fall all about, blood trailing behind them. The C4 he had stolen from a makeshift Team Rocket armory in the Pokeball factory had been a good idea. Putting it in a broken Pokeball was even better.  
Pokeball grenades. He needed to patent that.

"Let's have your names please?"  
It was sunset, and the five people sat around a wooden table in a circular room at the top of Cloud Tower. The walls of the whole room were glass, looking down on Kanto. The highest point in all of Kanto was the meeting place of the Masked Man and the previous bosses of Team Rocket's Johto and Kanto branches.  
They all sipped at champagne, even the fifteen year old boy with his feet resting on top of the table like the rebellious teenager everyone figured he was.  
"Starting with you child." The Masked Man nodded toward the boy.  
"Keane. Took the position of Johto's Team Rocket head by killing my father. I prefer hand to hand to guns. It's much more fun and the rushes of that sort of combat are so much better than those from shooting."  
"The boy is disturbed. He should be dead. I'd kill him myself if I weren't being bossed around by the new head." Will muttered, a man with purple hair down to his shoulders.  
"Are you not happy with me?" The Masked Man asked.  
"I believe everything would have been better with Giovanni around. Team Rocket could do what they wanted under his nose because he paid less attention to us than any boss I've ever had. I could have killed the damn kid and taken Johto for myself."  
"And who are you anyway?"  
"Kanto's Team Rocket head."  
The Masked Man sat back and steepled his fingers.  
"I can see we are very badly in need of some guidance. The two women sitting at this table are not as loud as these two. Your names?"  
"Karen." One replied. She had long blue hair.  
"Chermaine." Her hair was cut short and she wore a Team Rocket dress.  
"And you are the seconds in command?" The Masked Man asked.  
"Correct. I am Johto's second." Karen replied.  
"And Chermaine is Kanto's second. Good. I would like you all to come with me tonight after our supper. I would like you to join me in a small building where I shall show you my plans. Would you do so?"  
"Are you going to fuck us over there? Kill us and take over?" The kid asked, Keane.  
"No, no, no. The young are so silly sometimes aren't they? I need you to run Kanto and Johto. I need you to make sure everything stays fine."  
The hatch beside the table opened and a servant walked up a staircase into the room carrying a tray, followed by twelve other servants carrying the same.  
"Please enjoy this feast!" The Masked Man smiled.

The three guards that walked around the perimeter of the mansion were dispatched by Gengar when the Pokeball grenade went off.

Lucario kicked the door to the mansion open and ran into the main hall as gunfire exploded around him, blowing vases and pictures and statues to pieces around him. He sent aura balls at the shooters, killing them instantly.  
Tsubaki ran in with Zangoose at her heel.  
Together, Lucario, Tsubaki, and Zangoose ran up the stairs to the top floor of the building.

The Masked Man watched as the four entered the small, dark room.  
"Welcome." He said.  
"Why the hell are you wearing a gas mask?" Keane asked.  
"Good night."  
"SON OF A BITCH!" Keane ran at the masked man, only to hit something and fall to his ass.  
"I set up this bulletproof glass barrier just in case of something like this. Good night once again."  
Suddenly, gas started spraying into the room the four stood in. They tried the door but it was locked. They beat the glass but within a minute they were all passed out on the floor. Men in gas masks grabbed them and dragged them deeper into the building.

"Lucario. The Lucario that everyone has been wanting. The Lucario everybody wants dead. Everybody wants alive. Everybody wants to question. Everybody wants on their side. The one that killed two Team Rocket officers with his bare hands. The one that is responsible for millions of dollars of destruction. The Lucario I wish to see die."  
"The Lucario who will add you to the list of people he has killed." Lucario smiled at Archer. They faced off in his living room, the fish tank behind Lucario, the pool/patio behind Archer. All of the guards were dead. Tsubaki stood behind Lucario having commanded him to defeat Archer.  
"Die Lucario!" Archer smiled before pressing a button on his coffee table.  
The radio waves that escaped from throughout the speakers in the house were amplified tenfold by the fish tank's water. Lucario fell to the ground, writhing in pain.  
Tsubaki watched as Zangoose also fell and Gengar, who had just joined them, started writhing as well.  
Archer then pulled a pistol from beneath the folds of his clothes and aimed at Tsubaki. She fell to the ground and squirmed behind the fish tank as the shot smacked into the wood floor where she had stood not three seconds before.  
Lucario's ears were bleeding. He screamed. Archer's pistol came around and aimed at the screaming Pokemon.  
Before he could squeeze the trigger he was thrown to the ground by the shaking of the mansion. An explosion rocked the place and he screamed as the pistol fell from his hands.

Daylan watched, mesmerized by the explosion that was now leading to the mansions collapse. Maybe stealing that fire stone from the museum was a good idea. Mewtwo had smoke coming from it's arm after releasing the biggest fireball Daylan had ever seen. He was rather happy the cameras had been hacked into easily enough and the guards had been already taken care of by the invaders inside. Now he could start destroying Team Rocket from the inside and taking it over himself.  
What a fool the Masked Man was expecting Daylan to work for him when it was readily apparent that Daylan was as power hungry as any of Team Rocket's members were. The only difference between himself and a regular member of Team Rocket was that he had the means to rise in power. Thanks to his Mewtwo and the Darkrai in a Team Rocket birthing chamber at this exact moment, he would ascend to take the Masked Man's position.  
He knew that the Lucario and the girl could be used to his advantage. Their want to kill the Masked Man was a perfect cover for his own mischief. Follow their movements, interfere with their little battles without showing himself. Let them decide it is all divine intervention.  
He knew that high frequency radio waves were playing in the house, deafening and pretty much killing all the Pokemon inside. Mewtwo was in pain, he could tell. Not as much as the Pokemon inside, but his ears started bleeding a bit.  
The two left as the building started falling to it's side.

Lucario screamed as he flew through the air, the building falling to it's side abruptly was not good for anyone not holding on to anything firmly nailed to the floor. And he couldn't because he was too busy enduring the pain. He flew through the air and smacked into Archer as he fell through the sliding glass door to the patio and pool. They both flew into the pool outside as the patio smashed into the ground and the rest of the building collapsed on top of that. All the water had fallen out and now they lay jumbled together in an empty cement poll with tons of debris on top of them.  
Tsubaki had been laying against the fish tank, so when the building hit the ground she didn't fall out of the house. She was inside when it hit the ground. Being at the back of the room, not much fell on top of her or her Pokemon. She was perfectly fine, just had a sense of vertigo since the floor before was now the left wall and the ceiling the right wall.

The Masked Man applauded his surgeons as they showed him the four leaders of Johto and Kanto. Half of their face was covered by a white mask now of some shape. They now had microchips implanted in their heads that made them do whatever they were told and the Masked Man had taken a liking to them.  
They were his new puppets. He was going to teach them to fight and turn them into his personal guard. He had people who could take their positions in Team Rocket. He just wanted something to do while events played out elsewhere.

**Day 3 of the Prewar: Defeat of Archer**  
Lucario and Archer had been pulled into the forest by Tsubaki. They were both bleeding, they were both gasping for breath. But they had woken simultaneously and looked at each other at the same moment and stood at the same moment, fire dancing in their eyes.  
Tsubaki sighed. She knew what would come next.  
"You can't kill me. I know too much. The information I know may be vital to your survival, it could aid you in your battle against Team Rocket! Let me join you! I can be a double agent for you! I can get you so far into Team Rocket and it will all be in the span of a day! I can do that! Just let me do it!" Archer was blubbering stupidly. He was hunched over and held onto his left elbow with his right arm. Blood was coursing down his face from deep gouges in his cheeks and forehead. His clothes were tatters, his eyes were bloodshot with tears escaping from them. His teeth had gone from perfect white, to crusted red. His hair was disorganized, having fallen all about as if he had just gotten out of bed.  
Lucario looked at the pathetic man, his eyes wavering and glossy. It was not because of this poor excuse for a man, bathing in the riches of a wartime economy. It was because of the pain he was in. His face was bloodied, his right leg was twisted at an awkward angle, his left arm was dislocated and hung limply at his side. He was gasping for breath, his chest heaving every few seconds.  
Sitting away from the stand off, Tsubaki did not have any problems. A couple scrapes from escaping the fallen building and hauling Lucario and Archer out, but otherwise she was in good condition. She didn't want to see these two fight in the conditions they were in, but it was not a good idea to get between them.  
Lucario laughed, a maniacs laugh. The kind of laugh you hear coming from an insane asylum. He took a heavy step toward Archer, more blood escaping his wounds, more pain coursing through his entire body. He laughed for thirty seconds straight, his head tilted back, his eyes looking at the sky.  
Insanity.  
Archer reeled back. He fell to his ass, the pain in his leg too much to bare. He tried to scoot away from the slowly approaching Lucario, tried to find a place to hide from the maniac. He lifted his hands to cover his face as the Lucario neared him. "Please. Please no!"  
Lucario laughed again, this time doubling over in pain as he did so. A thick stream of blood and phlegm fell from his mouth. Still he pushed forward.  
Tsubaki just watched, afraid to say anything, afraid of Lucario suddenly. Something was off. He was different. As if the pain had turned him into someone else.  
Lucario made it to where Archer cowered and fell next to him. He passed out on the ground, right next to his enemy. Archer watched him for a second, poked his arm. The Lucario was unmoving. Archer laughed suddenly, as maniacally as Lucario had.  
"I've won! The Lucario is dead! HA!" Archer tried to get up and looked over at Tsubaki. "HE'S DEAD! I'VE FUCKING WON! TEAM ROCKET'S FUCKING WON! AND WHAT HAVE YOU WON LITTLE BITCH?"  
Archer's body was suddenly bisected. His top half flew one way, his bottom the other. Entrails hung out from where his stomach had been ripped in half, and various organs fell to the ground with a wet splatter.  
Zangoose stood in the middle of the two halves of Archer's body. Tsubaki smiled at him and he smiled back.  
Lucario lay on the ground, and started laughing again, eerily.


	11. Chapter 11

**Part 11: Acolytes of Darkness (2): Ariana  
Day 5 Of Prewar**  
Lucario was laid out in a graveyard. He lay in front of a grave marker in the shape of a cross, the name long eroded. Rain poured on him, turning the ground muddy, making his fur stick out all over, making his back a dirty mess. He stared up at the swirling mass of clouds, lightning flashing from them, thunder making his ears ring. The moon was trying to break through, a faint glow coming through the clouds, but it was ultimately failing in the attempt. The occasional bird fluttered over, but it was otherwise very serene. Lucario could think clearly here.  
His wounds had healed during his whole day inside of his Pokeball. He had been in severe pain, probably could have died from the trauma. But thankfully, he had been taken into the dark world of the Pokeball where he healed and slept.  
And now he lay in a graveyard next to Oreburgh City and rested. At least for a short moment.  
The crunch of gravel marked the arrival of someone. Lucario did not look up to see who the visitor was, he instead continued staring at the sky.  
"It's about time I found you." The voice was soft, that of a sophisticated man.  
"I don't like indulging myself in conversation with strangers. Especially in a dark cemetery in weather like this at midnight. Stranger danger and all that."  
"Where is your trainer?"  
"Answer my question, I'll answer yours."  
"Don't you wish to look at me? It is kind of hard to converse with a person not paying attention."  
"I am. Name?"  
"Daylan. I'm a scientist for Team Rocket."  
"My trainer is in the park next to this cemetery, training her other Pokemon. What does a Team Rocket scientist want with me?"  
"I'm not technically a scientist for Team Rocket. I am a free lancer. Archer's mansion exploding, that was me. I have something to gain from your killing off Rocket leaders."  
"What?"  
"Well, by destroying Team Rocket I can still keep the lab they handed me. I can start working independently. The Man In The White Mask's death will do a lot for me."  
"That's the leaders name?"  
"Yes. No one knows who is behind that mask, just that his rule is absolute."  
"Tell me, if we are to work together..."  
"We are not. I am an independent variable. I will help, but I am never to be let into the limelight. If you break that rule I will make sure you and your trainer are dead. And I have the means, don't worry."  
Lucario sat up. "We don't need your help in the first place and if you want to threaten me I feel I am obliged to kick your ass and teach you not to voice threats you cannot back up."  
"Let's play then." Lucario stood as Daylan turned his back and a Mewtwo walked over to take his place.  
"There was only one Mewtwo though, ten years ago! It's gone!" Lucario exclaimed.  
"Until I cloned Mew DNA like those scientists and made a better one, one that is obedient to it's master." Daylan laughed as he walked away.

The president had just been appointed, a leader who had shown his mettle during the fierce campaigns. He was not a radical, he was a very level thinker. He was not one of the people Team Rocket wanted to take that position either. And that made him a target. He did not have a vice president yet, but everyone predicted he would pick someone from nowhere, not a radical, not one of the few people qualified.  
Vellstone City, where the president resided, was to become a storm of violence. But first the preparations had to be made.

Tsubaki sat on the sopping wet park bench and watched her Pokemon run around, getting exercise. She played with the cell phone in her hand, which she had picked from Archer's body. She had already called one of the numbers, and found a woman named Ariana on the other side.  
She was their next target. The GPS tracker on the cell phone could track a person if you had their cell number. And she found that Ariana was traveling rapidly to Vellstone City. And that was where she would take Lucario, Zangoose, and Gengar.  
She heard grunting and yelping in the cemetery. She got up fast, and had Zangoose and Gengar follow her to where she had left Lucario to think.

The Man In The White Mask sat in the plush fuselage of his private jet, sipping at champagne. He had "convinced" the leaders of Team Rocket Kanto and Johto successfully to come with him and be his personal guard, leaving more competent people in their places to lead. His new personal guard had already been taken to his base. He had to spend the past day setting up plans for Kanto and Johto before he headed home to Sinnoh.  
The days newspaper had been handed to him, election results the prevalent news that took up the front page. And The Man In The White Mask was not happy with the results. It was not one of his men in the presidents office, instead it was a politician he had neglected to assassinate before. Now, he had to do it so he could get his people in there. The man was to pick a vice president in the next couple days as well. And if the assassination attempts failed, this would destroy his plans. The vice would not be one of his men, it would be a friend of the president, a political friend.  
Ariana appeared on the touchscreen on the table in front of him.  
"Sir, I am approaching Vellstone. Everything is in place."  
"Good. The papers have told of an explosion...and it is particularly at the top of my thoughts because it was Archer's house."  
"Yes sir. Archer has been found dead. We suspect the Lucario and the girl."  
"Damn. I expect more from you Ariana. The death of them both. They have become worse than thorns in my side. They have killed more Rocket members than anyone in history. And yet we have only managed to kill one of the rebels, the old man. The woman who had the Rayquaza is at large. The Lucario is still killing off our men. The girl presumably follows. I want them all dead! And the faster it is done, the faster Rocket can take over, you can have all the riches you wish, and you won't fear for your life every night because the Lucario could be near you at any time."  
"He doesn't scare me."  
"He will when he is pounding you into the dirt. Go."  
"Sir." Ariana's countenance disappeared from the touchscreen and The Man In The White Mask sat back and took a nap.

Lucario kicked out first and Mewtwo blocked with upraised arms before attempting a roundhouse kick of his own. Lucario backed away, Mewtwo's foot missing his nose by centimeters. Mewtwo came at him aggressively, cocking a powerful punch aimed right at Lucario's nose. Lucario sidestepped and brought his knee up, right into Mewtwo's stomach. The Pokemon fell to the ground and gasped for breath.  
Lucario shrugged his shoulders a couple times, loosening the muscles as Mewtwo stood. He then ran at his enemy again. Lucario smiled and prepared to block but he was suddenly blinded to the whatever was going on by a bouquet of flowers Mewtwo had kicked up from a grave on his way forward. Lucario rolled to the left before a blow could be landed. But his moves had slowed down and Mewtwo was on him and kicked high. Lucario brought his forearm up next to his cheek and blocked the kick. He then saw that Mewtwo was charging an aura ball.  
"You slimy little..." Lucario dropped to the ground as the ball flew over his head and into the ground a few feet away, blowing a hole half a foot deep.  
Lucario looked up to see that Mewtwo had left and was now standing ten feet away. Lucario got up and spit into the mud. Mewtwo then looked over, and showed that he had plucked a gravestone from the ground.  
"Yikes..." Lucario bounded away as Mewtwo swatted the spot Lucario had been in three seconds earlier.  
"That's cheating!" Lucario said, ducking under another swat and coming up under Mewtwo with an uppercut. Mewtwo dropped the gravestone and flew into the air, falling back into the mud. Blood started running from his nostrils.  
"I don't like you much buddy." Lucario grabbed the gravestone from the ground. "And neither does your trainer if he wanted you to fight, of all people, me. I don't need your masters help. I can take down Team Rocket myself. I don't need some son of a bitch scientist in the way. A scientist after money..."Lucario suddenly was staring hard, he was angry.  
Scientists in it just for the money. Oak, Sillindra. They were the ones who got him into this mess. They were money hungry, they didn't care about him during his transformation.  
"Go to hell and your master will be with you soon!" Lucario was about to drop the gravestone on Mewtwo's head when a shot rang out. He looked down at his fur. Red. He looked up at Daylan, pistol in hand.  
"We could have been partners, you could have learned so much from me!" Daylan looked at the sky and put the back of his hand against his forehead in a theatrical parody of sorrow. "Woe is me. Now I am killing my prospective business partner."  
Lucario was breathing hard. His lung was probably shot.  
Tsubaki appeared out of nowhere, Zangoose beside her. Zangoose shot out and ripped the pistol from Daylan's hand, literally. Daylan's right arm flew to the side, the pistol still held in it.  
Daylan looked down at the stump and screamed. He ran for it, the whole time screaming and staring at his stump.  
Nobody followed him.  
Lucario dropped the gravestone and it fell on Mewtwo's chest, crushing his ribs. A few of the ribs punctured his lung. Mewtwo screamed and an aura sphere appeared in his hand, aimed at Lucario. Lucario just watched as it smacked into his stomach. He then passed out when the explosion happened. He knew he had flown through the air, he knew he was probably dead.  
Darkness was the only respite from the pain. And he embraced it.

**Day 6 of The Prewar**  
"Good morning Lucario."  
Vellstone City was quiet. The sun had just rose. A light breeze ruffled through his fur. And standing in front of him was a man in a tuxedo. He had black hair. Lucario could not see his face, because the man was turned away from him. Lucario then noticed they were on a skyscraper. And he noticed that he was in Vellstone City due to the skyline. Republic Tower stood right in front of this skyscraper.  
"Who are you?" Lucario asked. He looked down at his wounds. He was healed.  
"Daylan called to tell me he had met up with you while going to pray at the grave of his mother. I see you disarmed him. Quite literally. And killed his Mewtwo. He was quite stricken with that pet."  
"Who the fuck are you?" Lucario asked.  
The Man In The White Mask turned to look at Lucario.  
"YOU! YOU'RE THE LEADER OF TEAM ROCKET!" Lucario stood and ran at the man. But he swiftly pulled a pistol from his coat and when Lucario got close, pushed it onto his temple. The cold metal was a shock against his skin, and his let his arm fall to his side.  
"I allowed the girl to let you heal. At least in exchange allow me to talk.  
"Do so." Lucario spit out.  
"I killed Giovanni and took over Rocket just two and a half weeks ago. And look at the world now! Utter chaos. War, riots, destruction! A cacophony of screams and yells and shouts and stomps and explosions on every street. I have done this! I have created such chaos! I have become the very god of evil in just two and a half weeks! And my plans haven't even been completed, very few of them have come to fruition! I still do not hold a place in government, you are still alive. I have many things to work at. I eventually have the matter of Daylan's betrayal to deal with."  
"You knew?"  
"Of course. I hired him fully knowing he was as power and money hungry as every scientist. Of course when his Darkrai is completed he will attempt to destroy us. Too bad he does not realize how much C4 I have packed in the walls of his lab. If it must come to that, it shall."  
"Where is Tsubaki?"  
"The girl? She is spending time with Ariana."  
"How did we get here so fast?"  
"I was flying over Oreburgh when Daylan called me. I picked the girl, Daylan, and yourself up. Daylan had shoved his stump in a fire when he ran from the cemetery to staunch the blood loss. He passed out, you were near to dead, and the girl sat over you, crying when I offered that I could save you. What choice did she have? Despite the fact I am her enemy, she took my hand and I helped her. She is unharmed and will stay that way. I feel that killing her would be worthless. I feel she will, with you at her side, be a productive member of the Team Rocket family."  
"Are you an idiot? Do you think we would join you? We killed your men. Why the fuck would you want us on your side?"  
"You proved my men incompetent. And proved yourself a worthy replacement. We would embrace you wholeheartedly. Perhaps in a year you could become a leader of one of our branches. Not fearing for your life daily, not getting beat to hell. Just a productive life in luxury, just watching over a region of the world for me. Doesn't that sound nice compared to your current conditions?"  
"No."  
"Aren't you a stubborn guy?"  
Footsteps approached behind Lucario. He didn't turn to look because there was a gun on his head, and he really didn't want to get shot.  
"Sir, we are set up. Ready to kill the president."  
"What?" Lucario asked looking into the eyes of the man in the mask.  
"Watch Lucario. My ascension to goddom gets closer and closer."  
"You're insane."  
"Insanity is a word reserved for those who cannot achieve their goals. I already have."

Tsubaki was tied up in the small apartment, a tall lady with devilish red hair and eyes of the same color staring at her.  
"Quit struggling. It will only make the time harder. You will be my personal apprentice when you join Team Rocket. So much potential. Hearing about your Zangoose cutting Daylan's arm off was the funniest thing I've heard in a long time. You're brutal, yet so pure. It's as if all the light is hiding a dark core. I like that. You have potential little one, and I swear to bring it out."

"Now Lucario, watch my ascension. With the death of the president will come only my rise to power. I already have politicians in place everywhere. They will rise to the occasion, take the high positions and I will guide their hands. And Team Rocket will have taken Sinnoh. That useless army sitting, waiting for Team Rocket to fight them will be worthless, you will be worthless. Nothing will be able to staunch the flow of Team Rocket's influence."  
"Oh might one," Lucario said sarcastically, "note the fact you are not a god yet, and I can still staunch the flow of Team Rocket's influence."  
"Says the creature with a gun to it's head."  
Lucario crouched and the pistol went off above his head. Lucario tackled the Man In The White Mask, knocking the pistol out of his hand. As Lucario tackled the Man In The White Mask off the building, and himself, a scream could be faintly heard coming from apartments nearby.  
"You'd die with me?" The Man In The White Mask asked as they fell.  
"I won't die."  
The pavement came ever closer.


	12. Chapter 12

**Part 12: Acolytes of Darkness (3): Vellstone Warzone  
Day 6 Of The Prewar**  
Air rushed by, the ground appeared to come closer and closer. The few people on the street screamed as they watched the two figures, a Lucario on top of a large man, plummet to the sidewalk. They pointed, they screamed, one had a cellphone out and was video taping the event.  
Next to Republic Tower was a large screen that generally played the news during the day, but right now was displaying the time. 6:59 gave way to 7:00 and a bell started to ring.  
That is when a Charizard appeared beneath the man and the Lucario and they were swiftly taken into the air on it's back.

"DIE!" Lucario kicked out at the Man In The White Mask atop his Charizard. Mask ducked under it and came up with a roundhouse. Lucario bent back as it passed by his nose. A thing the Mewtwo had done came to him from yesterday and an aura ball appeared in his hand.  
"It won't work." The Man In The White Mask laughed.  
"Yes it will." The aura sphere was thrown into Charizard's back and blood and bits of flesh exploded from the creature. Suddenly, they were plummeting again, on the back of a dead Pokemon.  
"I blew his spinal column to pieces." Lucario yelled as the sound of the wind overtook his hearing. The Man In The White Mask ran across the back of his dead Charizard and lashed out with a vicious punch.  
Twenty seconds until impact.

Tsubaki called out to her Pokemon in their Pokeballs on the table in the small apartment room. She watched the Pokeballs move. It was working. She could call out to them. She needed them to come out and save her. She needed them.  
The Pokeballs opened and Zangoose and Gengar appeared. Ariana turned from looking out of the window at Republic Tower and cried out as Zangoose cut the rope Tsubaki was restrained with. Ariana grabbed her Pokeballs, all five of them. She threw them out.  
She then pulled a pistol from her clothing. Tsubaki stood and Gengar stood to her left, Zangoose to her right.  
"Die." Ariana said. Her five Pokemon came forward.

Fifteen seconds until impact.

Lucario grabbed Mask's fist and went under his arm. Lucario's free arm was brought upward, the elbow hitting Mask's armpit, an impact that would have dislocated his shoulder had it not been for the armor he was wearing beneath his suit.  
Lucario cried out and fell to the ground, clutching his elbow.  
"CHAINMAIL AND A BIOARMOR THAT HAS NANOMACHINES IN IT THAT TAKE THE IMPACT! YOU CAN'T KILL ME YOU MOTHERFUCKER!"

Ten seconds until impact.

An Arbok, a Gloom, a Murkrow, a Drowzee, and a Grimer. All standing in this small room prepared to kill Zangoose and Gengar.  
And then the red haired bitch. She had a pistol trained on Tsubaki. And Tsubaki didn't care. Because she knew everything would work out in the end. It always did. Lucario would come. He always did.  
Zangoose ran forward to confront Arbok and Grimer and Gengar started to fight. The other three chose sides and joined in the melee.

Five seconds until impact.

The president sat next to the podium. Reporters sat in metal chairs on the road, notebooks and pens in hand. The president sighed. His speech was rather rushed, written overnight. The first draft had been sloppy, nigh unreadable, and rather trite. This new one would stoke some flames, but he needed to get it out of the way.  
"Sir." One of his bodyguards pointed up the road at something falling into the street.  
"Son of a bitch..." The president muttered.

Zero.

Lucario and Mask stood beside the fallen dragon, now nothing more but a broken, hulking mass of flesh and guts lying all over, as if he was a fly who had been swatted on a wall.  
Mask was apparently wearing a whole suit of those nanomachines, he had jumped off the beast and hit the ground on his feet, yet the impact, which should have killed him, did not.  
Lucario had jumped at the last second, using his last reserves of strength to fight the air pushing down at him. By jumping, he broke the jarring impact of the fall. The dragon had hit it at hundreds of miles per hour. But by jumping on it's back, Lucario broke the air pushing down at him, thus making the impact of his fall after jumping just as it should be when you are jumping.  
He had then rolled off the dragon and confronted the masked man. Lucario was beat up. Bad. He felt weak, his elbow was more than likely broken.  
The Man In The Mask walked away, and Lucario could do nothing to stop him.  
But he suddenly felt something, and looked over at a group of reporters, with the president sitting on a stage with a podium on it in front of the Republic Tower.  
The snipers.  
Lucario trudged forward. They were going to kill the president.  
But then Lucario remembered, he did not directly hear snipers. It could be anything.  
Like assassins.  
Lucario was being watched by everyone at the little press conference. He rushed forward as fast as he could.

10

Gengars Dark Ball's became weaker and weaker. Zangoose was bleeding. All of Ariana's Pokemon were either dead or beat to hell.  
And Tsubaki watched all the violence, was now standing in the blood and gore of the fight. She could only keep staring. She did not pay attention to the lesion that had appeared on her leg from Arbok, did not pay attention to the pistol aimed at her.  
A tear started to cascade from her eye. Her Pokemon lay around, almost dead. And Lucario was probably dead. And she was too.  
Time slowed. And she wished it would just stop forever.

9

"My Charizard is dead. The Lucario is a formidable foe. Too bad he won't live long enough for round two."  
"You sure about that boss, he seems to live through everything."  
"Well then, I can't wait for round two."

8

"PROTECT THE PRESIDENT! SHOOT TO KILL! THAT'S THE BASTARD WHO BLEW UP THE POKEBALL FACTORY!"  
The president watched on as his guards stood in front of him, pistols cocked and aimed at the incoming, beat up, limping Pokemon.

7

Tsubaki felt an impact to her stomach, looked down. Looked behind her. Funny, the wall was not painted red before.  
She crumpled.  
Zangoose and Gengar watched, lying in the pool of blood and dead Pokemon. Wells of power suddenly became available to them. And they stood and used them.  
The last thing Tsubaki heard before passing out, entering the darkness, was Ariana screaming.

6

Lucario shouted out. "THERE ARE ASSASSINS! I'M NOT THE BAD GUY! PROTECT THE PRESIDENT! SURROUND HIM!"  
A shot rang out and scraped over Lucario's shoulder.

5

Zangoose stood over his master in the small apartment room. Gengar still stood in front of Ariana's dead body, her head still dangling from her neck by a shred of skin. Her fingers had been cut off one by one, he legs taken off.  
If Zangoose could have spoken English, he would have said "The bitch is dead".

4

"PROTECT HIM!"  
Lucario stumbled and looked over at the other side of the road. A woman was running toward him. She wore heels, a skirt, a labcoat over it.  
She bent over him and he noticed the name. Sillindra.  
"Sean?" She asked.  
He hated that name.  
She took something from her pocket and shoved it in his mouth. Lucario had nothing he could but swallow it.  
And suddenly, his power returned.  
"What...was that?"  
"A stone I've been learning the properties of. It is supposed to make the pain go away and give you extra strength. It lasts an hour. I'd use it while I can."  
"You look...different."  
"I'll explain later. Go save the president."  
"You know?"  
"I've been watching the whole thing. I can't believe I found you."  
"WOMAN, FUCK OFF! HE'S A CRIMINAL!" The president's guard yelled out.  
Lucario stood. "Heed their advice."  
Sillindra looked at him. "You haven't changed have you?"  
"I've been captured if you count that."  
"Tsubaki."  
"I'll explain later, as you said."  
Lucario continued to run forward, but this time could dodge the bullets and the pain was gone.

3

"Ready to go? Kill him fast and get out. Three."

2

"Two."

1

"One. Let's fuck 'em up."

Proton ran out of the alley first, machine gun aiming at the people in the street watching. He fired a burst, tearing into the crowd. He laughed as five fell. Petrel held a samurai sword in hand as he ran toward the podium and the president. He jumped onto the stage as the four guards in suits turned from the Lucario, just in time to be cut in half and decapitated. They crumpled and the president stumbled backward, pissing himself as he crawled backward, trying to get away. Archer's replacement, Grey, ran out of the alley now, duel assassin knives in hand. He ran toward the president and Petrel.  
Proton ran toward the podium too.  
And now standing on the podium, between the president and the three killers, was a Lucario.  
"Time to die." Lucario said.


	13. Chapter 13

**Part 13: Endit  
Day 6 Of The Prewar**  
It was a dream, a writhing tendril of blackness overtaking Tsubaki's perception, making her oblivious to the outside world. She had been shot. She was bleeding badly. She was probably dead. And now here she was inside of a dark cloud that seemed to stretch on for eternity. There were moans, there was a creaking. It was like hell, only a bit less fire and brimstone and more darkness.  
Something red appeared in her vision, not too far away. She went toward it and saw it was actually the start (or could it be the end?) of a line. She followed the glowing red line and noticed it was not as much a line drawn, more a line made involuntarily by someone traversing the dark cloud and bleeding. Though who bled bright, glowing red?  
Her eyes met with those of another. He had appeared from nowhere. His face had stubble jutting from his chin and around his mouth, five o' clock shadow. His eyes were every color imaginable. He wore a blue suit with coattails in the back that almost reached the ground. There were black parts on the suit. He wore a yellow tie. His hair was long, blue, topped with a fedora, also blue but with a black stripe running around it.  
"Who are you?" Tsubaki asked, staring into the ever changing eyes of the tall man before her.  
He looked at her and was about to answer when he disappeared. Tsubaki had seen him before, somewhere. The blood trail appeared again and she followed and skidded to a halt as a raging inferno appeared before her. She fell to the ground as she watched a human body, the man she had run into not two minutes before, explode inside the fire and a stone fly out from his body. The stone gleamed blue, yellow, and somehow black.  
The fire disappeared, and the stone flew forward, still glowing. She followed it and watched as it shattered and a Lucario appeared. Her Lucario.  
And then she understood. The man was actually the human form of Lucario, now gone. It's what he would have looked like when he was older. But he would never be able to become older, be a human again. He had burnt his body, the god stone turned him into a Lucario.  
Lucario vanished and in his place she saw a gleaming gem on a chain. She ran to it, grabbed it. It was a sapphire, but it felt like so much more. She looked up from the necklace in her hand, and saw Lucario. He grabbed her, and held the hand she carried the necklace in.  
"I have one too." His chest was suddenly gleaming and a ruby appeared, jutting forth from his breast before disappearing back inside of him. "It is what hold me and you together more than regular Pokemon. You're going to die if you don't wear this, if you don't steal some of my power. I'm almost dead myself, but Sillindra is here, she gave me some pill that has given me some reserves of energy and strength. Steal everything but what the pill gave me. Once the pill is gone, I'll be dead. But you'll still live. And that's how it should be."  
"No..." Tsubaki's eyes filled with tears.  
"I'm sorry."  
Tsubaki put it around her neck. "I feel so selfish." She muttered.  
"Don't. I want this. Do it!"

Tsubaki's eyes fluttered open. She was lying on the floor, half her face soaked in blood, most of her body now covered in the stuff, not just her own but those of six Pokemon and a woman who had shot her in the stomach.  
"Lucario..." She looked down at her wound. It wasn't bleeding at all. She felt a sudden pang in her heart. As if her connection to Lucario was disappearing; as if he was dying.  
She looked over at her Pokemon, who stared at her sadly. They felt her pain, they wanted just as bad to be able to help Lucario, they wished they could help their master. But they couldn't, they had no way or means to.  
Tsubaki tried to stand.

Petrel came at Lucario first, samurai sword raised high. Lucario sidestepped a downward slice and lashed out as the sword came at his neck. He blocked it with his right arm spike and punched Petrel in the face with his left. Petrel staggered backward and wiped his nose. Blood.  
Proton shot at Lucario. Lucario rolled to the side as bullets impacted the wooden platform, splinters flying everywhere.  
As Lucario hid behind the metal podium he heard a whoosh of air and looked up to see a kid, Grey, front flip over it, throwing knives leaping from his hands and toward Lucario's eyes.  
Lucario rolled to the side again, now in the same spot he stood before Proton shot at him. He parried Petrel's sword again and came in close, this time grabbing his hand in mid swing and lashing out at his face with his other hand, his spike shredding through the man's cheek, cutting his tongue in half, and exiting through the other cheek. Petrel screamed stupidly as blood gushed out of his mouth like a fountain, also leaking from his ripped in half cheeks.  
More machine gun fire. Lucario brought up an aura shield. The bullets impacted it for roughly ten seconds before the clip ran dry. Lucario ran at the shooter, and punched him in the stomach before he could see anything coming. Doubling over, Proton screamed as his head was pushed back, almost to the point he could feel his neck about to snap. He then felt something puncture his neck, one of Lucario's spikes. Lucario threw Proton aside, the man writhing in pain as his attempts to breath proved fruitless.  
Grey approached fast, and a couple quick slices at Lucario cut him up a little. Blood started staining his fur again, flowing freely.  
Lucario kicked out and hit the assassin just beneath the knee, a contact that can make the leg crumple, giving Lucario the time to kick out again and hit the kid in the back of his head, punch him in the face, and snap his neck.  
Lucario then looked at the president. "All's well president. One last loose end, then it's over." Lucario's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell to the ground with a thud. The president watched, staring as Lucario died before his eyes.

Tsubaki screamed. "NO NO NO!" Suddenly, she stood and felt nothing wrong. The pain was gone, feeling was lost. She ran to the door, ran to the elevator, and stood in it, Zangoose and Gengar trailing.  
She could feel him.  
The Man In The White Mask would die today.

"Lucario..." Sillindra crouched beside him, trying to do CPR, pushing his chest, inhaling, exhaling into his mouth.  
"Is...is he gone?" The president asked.  
Sillindra looked over at him. "Yes."

Tsubaki ran out of the building, across the street, through an alley. She knew where she was going.  
And the whole time, the president and Sillindra watched.  
"Today has been too fucking weird." The president muttered.

Daylan sat in the helicopter, watching as his boss approached. He looked down at the Pokeball in his hand. Then at the soldier next to him. Despite the fact he was missing an arm, he felt he was ready.  
He pulled his pistol from it's holster, shot the soldier next to him in the face, then jumped out of the helicopter and threw the Pokeball at the ground.  
"RISE DARKRAI! KILL THIS WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT!"  
Darkrai appeared, and cried out at the masked man. He suddenly extended his power toward the man, intent on making him disappear forever.  
The Man In The White Mask jumped onto a dumpster in the alley, jumped up and grabbed a window ledge as the dark wave swept the alley.  
"YOU TWOFACED PIECE OF SHIT!" He screamed, falling down the ground and pulling an Uzi from his suit. "DIE!"  
Suddenly, a war erupted.  
And Tsubaki appeared and came behind the masked man.  
"DIE!" She screamed as she grabbed him in a choke hold and attempted to break his neck.

"Something is going on back there..." The president looked over his shoulder.  
"Take care of him, I'm going to go see what's going on." Sillindra hopped off the platform and ran for the battle.

"DIE!" Mask spit as he shoved his elbow into Tsubaki's face and rounded on her, Uzi trained on her face as she fell to the ground. Before he could let loose any bullets, Zangoose jumped over her falling body and sliced the weapon in half before landing and attempting to cut Mask's legs out from under him. But his claws got stuck in the man's leg.  
"NANOMACHINES LITTLE BASTARD!" Mask screamed as he kicked Zangoose off and ran to the side as Darkrai came at him from behind. Daylan tried to line up a shot but was suddenly facing off against Gengar.  
That's when Sillindra appeared. "Holy crap..."

Zangoose faced off against Darkrai, Gengar with Daylan, Tsubaki with Mask. And an attack helicopter was lifting off the ground, Mask's getaway.  
The endgame started.

Daylan looked at the Gengar and laughed. "You can't stop me you little bastard. I have a Darkrai, I have a gun. I may have lost one arm, but I'll get my revenge today!" The helicopter was lifting off the ground and the hair of everyone stirred, their clothes blowing crazily. The helicopter pilot was going to kill everyone he could with the machine guns.  
Daylan shot at Gengar. Gengar disappeared suddenly, a ghost, and then reappeared with a dark aura ball in his hand. Daylan danced around it as it flew past him, crashing into the building behind. The ball made a hole the size of the front of a car.  
Daylan shot again as Gengar flashed forward. Gengar took the shot, blood spewing from his wound. But he kept coming and jumped onto Daylan. Daylan discharged the rest of his clip into Gengar but still the Pokemon attacked, small aura balls striking Daylan's chest, blowing it open, striking his face. Daylan screamed as blood exploded from all of his wounds, as his eyes were crusted shut. As he was killed slowly.

Darkrai created an aura shield and Zangoose bounced off it, landing on the ground. He jumped over a dark wave. He came at Darkrai again, this time striking it's chest, before his claws rebounded off the Pokemon's skin and Zangoose was sent skittering across the ground.  
Darkrai flew over to him, a dark ball building in it's hand. Zangoose was on his back and watched as the dark ball headed for him. He shoved his claws in the ground and used them as leverage to catapult himself into the air, doing a triple backflip as the dark ball hit the ground.  
How the hell could he kill the Pokemon?  
That's when the machine guns on the helicopter started pumping rounds all over, glancing off Darkrai.  
Gengar had killed Daylan, and stood over the mangled body. He smiled at Zangoose and jumped into the air, grabbing onto the bottom of the helicopter.

"Oh shit..." Sillindra backed away as she figured out Gengar was going to blow that helicopter up and send it at Darkrai.

Tsubaki didn't know where the attacks were coming from, the power. She didn't feel in control of her body, yet she did. She felt him there. Lucario was inside her, controlling her movements. Yet he wasn't.  
She blocked a punch from Mask and kicked high, higher than she thought she could. He brought his arms up to block it before lashing out, lunging for her neck. Tsubaki ducked under, but felt a knee impact her chin. She flew backward and landed on her ass. Her jaw was numb.  
"A little girl thinks she can fight me?" Mask ran at her, to punt her in the neck.  
"I'm not a little girl..." Tsubaki grabbed his foot and twisted it to the side sharply. Mask used the twisting to lash out himself, his other foot striking her face as he fell to the ground and jumped back to his feet, having prevented a broken leg.  
Tsubaki jumped to her feet and ran at Mask. Mask dodged her punch and headed toward a pile of trash as he blocked them. He then grabbed a metal pipe and swung at her. She ducked, blocked his knee to her chin, rolled to the side as the pipe came down on her, and got up, all in one fluid motion. She found a metal pipe herself in the trash and used it to parry his blow and lash out herself. He parried as well.  
She came in close and used her left forearm to block the metal pipe, the blow breaking it. But she still came down on his head with her own pipe, breaking part of the mask and opening a huge gash in his forehead. He kicked out, hitting her in the stomach, then viciously striking with his own pipe, smashing into her left shoulder and breaking that, almost getting her neck.  
She fell against the wall of the building where they had picked up the garbage. She was in pain now, yet not in pain. She watched Mask approached, saw black hair covering half his green left eye now that half the mask was gone.  
"It's over you bitch."

The explosion knocked every one not sitting to the ground. Gengar hopped off the helicopter. Zangoose ran from Darkrai. Darkrai looked up just in time to come face to face with a helicopter's nose.  
Zangoose was thrown into a wall face first by the explosion. Gengar had turned into a ghost before he flew into the wall, now inside the building.  
Tsubaki was against the wall so the explosion did nothing to her.  
Mask was thrown into the wall, but the nanomachines suppressed the brunt of the impact.  
One of the tail propellers flew toward Tsubaki and clattered against the wall. Two feet of steel with a handle at the bottom. A make-shift sword.  
She got up and ran for it, grabbing it before Mask could land on her with his metal pipe. She parried the pipe and threw him off her. She then struck out, cutting the pipe in half.  
Mask threw the two pieces away and ran for the flaming remnants of the helicopter. Tsubaki followed.  
Mask found a huge shard of glass from the cockpit window and hurled it at Tsubaki. She was too late to block it and it embedded in her stomach, right where the bullet wound was. She screamed out.  
She ran at Mask anyway, sword held in her only good hand, her right hand.  
She entered the flames and lunged at Mask. Her clothes were on fire, his clothes were now on fire.  
"WE'RE BOTH GOING TO DIE!" Mask screamed as he grabbed a sharp piece of metal, probably from the seat or handholds on the ceiling of the helicopter, from the ground and ran at Tsubaki.  
Tsubaki ducked under, blocked his kick with her leg, grabbed him under the right armpit as he lunged, and threw him into flames. She didn't know where the strength came from.  
Her clothes weren't burning badly. Her hair was fine. She felt protected, as if a shield was around her, protecting her from the elements.

Sillindra couldn't see the battle inside the flames. But she knew it was crazy and they were both dead. He wore a suit of nanomachines to suppress pain, or at least, to make the pain ripple out all across the body, making it much more bearable. Fire could not be prevented by nanomachines though.  
He had to have an ace in his hole though. He wouldn't do this unless...  
"Oh shit..."

Tsubaki watched him stand, flames eating at his whole body. His mask had fallen off, and now he was exposed.  
"You are..."  
"Yes I am. I had so much potential. And I thought I'd use it. I didn't know I'd fight a bunch of fucking kids able to take me down. It's almost ironic. Because I had taken Team Rocket down so many times. But power and money make humans turn for the worse."  
"Weren't you married?"  
"She died. Rocket killed her. I decided I would take it over. I would make it into what it should be. I would avenge her death. I would make the world I wanted it, just for her."  
"You're demented." Flames licked at Tsubaki's feet, but the flames did nothing.  
"This whole thing is a demented dream, we are all crazy."  
"You were both good people, you both fought against Rocket. She was a gym leader, you were one of the greatest Pokemon trainers ever."  
"Misty Ketchum's story has ended as has Ash Ketchum's and your's girl!" Ash Ketchum glared dementedly. "See you in hell!"  
Suddenly, the helicopter disappeared, the flames disappeared. Tsubaki looked up and saw that the helicopter was sweeping the area in the air. Gengar was lying on top of Daylan, blood all over. And where the helicopter stood, there stood Darkrai.  
"Master of illusion, of darkness! My new pet! Daylan had no chance of taming this beast. And I did! KILL US!"  
Darkrai had created the shockwave after the explosion, had created the explosion. The whole scene had been an illusion. The flames were fake. His mask had fallen off due to impacts. The glass embedded in her stomach though, was real. The propeller had been nothing more than a knife.  
Darkrai shot a wave of darkness at the two. Tsubaki looked up just in time to see a blue blur. It grabbed her, kicked out at Ash. The dark wave swept past, destroying a building. It crumbled, dust exploding from it, covering everyone and leaving a fog over everything.  
Lucario looked into Tsubaki's eyes.  
"How..."  
"I controlled you up until you got the propeller. That was then all you. I'm proud of you." Lucario held onto her some more.  
"How are you alive...how did you control me?"  
"I can't answer the latter. But I can say that I've been tailed by a girl who didn't want me to go dying on her when we had a score to settle. She gave me something Rowan had been working on, a fragment of a stone. A fragment of a lifestone. It healed my wounds, it saved me. She said he had found it on an expedition in Johto."  
"Kill...those bastards."  
Lucario hugged her. "Don't die whatever you do."  
He stood and tilted his head one way, his neck snapping. He tilted it the other way, snap.  
And as the dust cleared, he stood in front of Ash Ketchum and Darkrai.  
"Round two asshole."

Sillindra lay in the alley, blood coursing down her face. She had been next to the building as it exploded, had run from rubble dropping on her. And now she lay on the sidewalk next to the main street, and the president ran toward her.  
"What the hell is going on?" He asked, watching the building collapse, looking down the alley.  
"It's over. He's back."  
"A little girl came by, gave the Lucario a stone..."  
"And now he's going to end it."

Lucario ran headfirst into a dark wave, bringing his arm up and throwing the wave to the side, as if it was material. Darkrai looked at Lucario dazed as Lucario came at him, kicking out at the things head. Darkrai put an aura shield at the exact spot Lucario tried to hit. Lucario dropped to the ground and ran at Darkrai again, this time sliding under another dark wave and jumping onto the Pokemon, punching him repeatedly. The shield stayed, but was cracking.  
And then the aura shield broke, shattered, and disappeared.  
And Lucario beat the Darkrai senseless. He pushed his arm spikes into the things eyes, broke it's face. He punched it in the stomach until it threw up blood. He then stood back and an aura ball appeared in his hand.  
"Science is a religion based in failure and experimentation to prevent failure. It's a religion just as unpredictable and based in fiction as any other. As proved by this failure. A real Darkrai could hold a shield for weeks." Lucario let the aura sphere go, watched the Darkrai explode.  
And then turned to Ash Ketchum.

Tsubaki lay and watched as the two faced off.  
Zangoose ran to her and stood next to her, facing the battle.  
Gengar lay over Daylan, dead.  
Tsubaki could have sworn that her usually silent sentinel said something like "He'll get his ass kicked."  
Tsubaki smiled and watched as Lucario and Ash met.

Ash spun around in a roundhouse kick. Lucario went under the kick, grabbed his leg, ran forward, tackling his body, still holding the leg over his shoulder. He threw Ash to the ground and kicked the man in the stomach.  
Ash jumped to his feet, and came at Lucario. Lucario ducked under a punch, blocked a kick with his own leg, punched Ash in the stomach, grabbed his hair and punched him in the neck. The man was gasping for air, his eyes now bloodshot, his teeth caked in blood.  
Lucario threw him, using his hair, into the wall of a building. Lucario held the patches of hair he had ripped out from Ash's head and threw them to the ground.  
Ash turned and laughed.  
He had found his Uzi.  
Lucario eyed the man as he pointed it at his adversary, then quickly shoved it in his mouth and pulled the trigger. His brains splattered against the wall.  
Lucario looked up at the circling helicopter, machine guns now trained on the Pokemon. He grabbed Ash's body and held it up high so the chopper could see their leader, mask gone, broken and beaten.  
He had killed himself. Whether he had realized how futile it was to fight Lucario or maybe visions of his previous life, maybe his good side was shining again. Either way, it was over.

The politicians moved into office by Rocket reacted crazily to the death of their leader. The cops moved in and arrested them, interrogations of them all taking place over the course of a week, opening up all kinds of weak points in Team Rocket's set up, introducing the police to four Team Rocket leaders yet to be killed.  
The president promptly declared war on the broken remnants of Team Rocket. With no leader, Sinnoh Team Rocket was defeated. The four leaders came to Sinnoh with their own armies, but were quickly defeated, a certain Lucario killing them in the midst of the warzone.  
The armies of every continent moved in, destroying Team Rocket. The greatest criminal organization ever was defeated and destroyed.  
Assuming that radio signals were what were making the Pokemon so violent, every government attempted to pinpoint odd signals. Everyone came to the consensus that the Pokemon were not acting oddly because of radio signals though, it was something else. What it was, no one would figure out for a long time to come.

The president tried to elect Lucario as his vice because of his military prowess, his ability to make things happen, and his general knowledge. Lucario declined the offer.

Sillindra was not badly beaten, the cut on her head not severe. She had woken to find the president sitting in her room. And he asked her to be his vice.  
She accepted.

Tsubaki awoke in the hospital. Her whole body was covered in slings and bandages. She looked like a mummy.  
Zangoose and Lucario sat together next to the bed as she came to. She tried to get up but a doctor ran in and laid her back down. Lucario stood and looked at her.  
"How's it going?" He asked.  
"That's a stupid question to ask someone in the hospital with more broken bones and cuts then anyone could think of." She replied. "But I'm doing fine."  
"Good."  
"I can't believe were survived." She muttered.  
"Well, we used the little reserves we had of each other's power to our advantage."  
"And the whole time he was..."  
"Yes. It was pretty surprising."  
"How long have I been out?"  
"Six days. War has been declared on Team Rocket throughout the world. It's done."  
She smiled at him. "What's next for us?" She asked.  
"Preferably we go somewhere quiet and live out the rest of our lives. But your the boss."  
Zangoose jumped onto the bed.  
"He's a badass. Through and through." Lucario said. "I've never heard a Pokemon cuss as much as he does."  
Tsubaki could have sworn she heard Zangoose tell Lucario to go fuck himself.  
"Gengar..." She was about to cry.  
"He's dead. I'm sorry."  
She didn't cry. Instead she smiled. "It's over."  
"It is." Lucario nodded.  
They left the room shortly afterward and Tsubaki noticed a sapphire chain on the table next to her. It was glowing brightly.

It was three days later that Tsubaki, Lucario, and Zangoose stood on the cruise ship, shaking hands with the president and Sillindra.  
"Next time you come by, don't bring so much trouble please!" The president laughed.  
Sillindra hugged Lucario. "Please come by again. And...I'm sorry that I treated you like I did. I'm done with science."  
Lucario looked into her eyes. "You're in politics now. You don't need the money science provides."  
"True." She replied.  
The cruise ship left for Hoenn. Lucario went into the ship with Tsubaki.  
"Have you ever seen a Pokemon drink?"  
"No." She replied.  
"Well there's a first for everything." Lucario headed toward the bar. Zangoose ran ahead of him and jumped right onto a bar stool. Tsubaki looked around.  
"Guys...I don't think this is a good idea."  
"Just one?" Lucario looked at her with cute, sparkling eyes. She looked down at the sapphire necklace around her neck. It was glowing brilliantly.  
"Just one." She replied and followed her Pokemon.  
**War For Sinnoh Ends **

**War For Sinnoh Is Continued In Pokemon: Dark Roads  
**


End file.
